Lady Di (Princess Diana)

(1961-1997). Diana Spencer. Daughter of the Earl John Spencer and Frances Shand Kidd. She married Charles Windsor, Prince of Wales, on 29 July 1981, the heir to the throne of England. Before her wedding, she was no style icon, being tall and a little clumsy, with a preference for small flowered patterned dresses, so much loved by English women. The day of her wedding she chose a romantic dress, vaguely nineteenth-century in style, designed by the English creators David and Elizabeth Emanuel. It was a triumph. On the day following the ceremony, celebrated live on TV in front of millions of spectators, Diana’s dress, replicated in thousands of copies, became the symbol of the bridal dress of the 1980s. In the years that followed the wedding, though abandoning her flowery patterns, she was unable to distance herself from the courtly elegance made up of ruches, frills, and hats. Only after the divorce from Charles did she detach herself from court etiquette and started to dress to flatter her slender body. Then, though continuing to use English designers like Catherine Walker, she began turning to Valentino, Lacroix, Lagerfeld (Chanel), Galliano (Dior) and, finally, Gianni Versace, a great friend and the designer of the Princess’s wardrobe on several occasions. In a few years, thanks to her tall, slender beauty, the result of hours of working out, Princess Diana was increasingly imitated, from her haircut to the shade of the tights she wore. Diego Della Valle named one of his creations the D-bag.