Princess Diana Had a Second Wedding Dress—and We’re So Glad She Didn’t Go With It

Princess Diana, exuded as much authority and individuality through her choice of clothing (we all remember her Revenge Dress), as she did with her goodwill initiatives. Diana’s wedding dress for instance is still the most iconic royal dress of all time. The masterpiece, made by Elizabeth Emanuel and David, two young and relatively small designers at the time, featured elaborate hand embellishments of 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequins, puffed sleeves, and an extraordinary 25-foot train.

While the dress made its way to the front of every newspaper, a lesser-known detail is that there was also a ‘spare’ one that even Princess Diana didn’t know of. Designer Emanuel, years later, revealed that she felt a bit of ‘neurotic at the time’ of being tasked with making a royal wedding dress and was worried someone would break in and steal it, or there might be a fire. In an interview with People magazine, she claimed she wanted to just be prepared for any kind of emergency, and so she set about making ‘The Dress That Never Was’.

The designer shared, that she did not want to worry the Princess, and hence kept it a secret from her. She said, “We never showed it to her, and never talked about it”. Interestingly, the backup dress wasn’t anything like a traditional royal wedding gown as trying to recreate the original wedding dress, would have taken too long in Emanuel’s ‘tiny little studio’.

In an interview with Hello! magazine, Emanuel described, “The dress was pale ivory silk taffeta with embroidered scalloped details on the hem and sleeves. Tiny pearls were sewn on the bodice.” She added, “People always ask you what it was like. It was similar in certain respects and both had the big skirt, but everything else was different.” The alternate gown featured a V-neckline that had ruffle trim and stylish three-quarter sleeves.

The dress today is however lost. Emmanuel shared that as it was unfinished, it ended up on some sample rail, and went ignored after it became apparent Diana would wear the original gown. Thankfully, Renee Plant, who has established a beautiful museum dedicated to the late Princess in LA, reached out to Emanuel and asked her to recreate the spare wedding dress. The designer shared that although she was very excited at the opportunity, she had a hard time restricting her vision to make an authentic replica of the original. She also shared that to attain the fabric identical to the ‘spare’ dress, she had to reach out to a company in Switzerland, referencing thumbnails and archives to get to the scallop details and the material right.

Recounting how she got the job of making Diana’s wedding dress in the first place, Emanuel claimed that it was through Vogue, who wanted a high-neck gown for a celebrity, which later turned out to be for the Princess for her engagement announcement. Diana reportedly loved the dress so much, that she appointed Emanuel and her team to also make the gown for her big day. Emanuel also designed a glamorous pink dress for a pre-wedding ball at Buckingham Palace, which was followed by Diana’s bold request for a very sexy dress that shocked everyone.