Princess Diana’s wedding dress had a major flaw, says royal embroiderer

• Royal wedding dressmaker Chloe Savage told Insider that Princess Diana’s dress has a major problem.
• Savage, who worked on the dresses for Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, said Diana’s dress “looked like it needed to be pressed.”
• Diana’s dress, designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel, was crushed when she rode a horse-drawn carriage to church on her wedding day.
• Visit the Insider home page for more stories.

When it comes to royal wedding dresses, you could argue that Chloe Savage is a bit of an expert. After all, she worked on Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle’s dresses for their big days.

The only wedding dress more famous than their stunning gowns was the one their late mother-in-law Princess Diana wore when she tied the knot with Prince Charles in 1981. But Savage told Insider there was a major problem with the iconic set. .

“It was a beautiful dress, but someone should have warned them that it was going to be stuck in the car!” Savage told Insider with a laugh. “It seemed like he had to be squeezed.”

Princess Diana’s wedding dress was designed by husband and wife duo Elizabeth and David Emanuel. It featured a 25-foot-long train, which was to be loaded into a car as Diana made its way to London’s St Paul’s Cathedral.

David Levenson / Getty Images

Savage, who now runs Chloe Savage Embroidery, told Insider she was shocked not to have a steamboat on hand.

“You could have brushed it off before she walked down the aisle. It would have taken 10 minutes and all those creases would have fallen off,” Savage said.

“It was a beautiful dress, very 80s, very her,” she added. “But if you look at it, you say, ‘Oh my god, is that puckered?’ No one would have thought it would have gone wrong. ”

Princess Diana’s ride to the cathedral had been repeated before the big day, but there was a crucial mistake

Princess Diana Archives / Getty Images

In Elizabeth Holmes’ book “HRH: So Many Considerations on Royal Style,” Elizabeth Emanuel revealed that they expected Diana to ride alone in the carriage.

But Earl Spencer, Diana’s father, joined her in the car the same day – which meant there was less room for her dress.

Emanuel said they tried to carefully fold Princess Diana’s gown and practice “like folding a bed sheet,” but that wasn’t enough to keep the ivory silk gown from wrinkling.

Anwar Hussein / Getty Images

Elizabeth Emanuel was ‘horrified’ when she saw Princess Diana get out of the wedding car

“We knew it would wrinkle a bit, but when I saw her come up to St. Paul’s and we saw the wrinkle, I felt weak,” she said during an appearance on “ Invitation to a royal wedding ”from ITV in 2018.

“I was horrified, really, because there were a lot of creases,” she added. “It was more than we thought.”

David Levenson / Getty Images

Folds weren’t the only issue on Diana’s wedding day

The Princess of Wales also spilled perfume on her dress just before walking down the aisle, according to InStyle.

Barbara Daly, Diana’s makeup artist, tried to clean up the mess, but the Houbigant Paris Some Flowers scent left a big stain on her dress again. Daly said she told Diana to hold her dress by the stained area to try to cover it.

While everything with her wedding dress did not go as planned, Diana took the time to personally thank her designers.

David Emanuel recently told Hello magazine that Diana called him before leaving for her honeymoon to tell him how much she loved the dress.

Keystone / Hulton Archives / Getty Images

“After all the pictures, they went to have the wedding breakfast and I went back to my studio in Mayfair. All my women from the studio were there, so we had a glass of champagne,” he recalls. .

“We had a little party and just as I’m about to lock, the phone rings… I thought who was calling?” It was Diana! She said ‘I just wanted to say thank you very much for the dress. I loved Prince Charles loved it. The whole family loved it, ”Emanuel continued.

“It couldn’t have been more special for me to hear from the client,” he added. “When you design for a bride, you want her to be happy. As long as the bride is happy, that’s all that matters. The fact that she took the time before going on her honeymoon … it is a real kindness. “