Abstract
·
Explain how the
dissertation will attempt to find out the extent of Diana’s use of fashion to
convey her emotions and other messages.
·
Mention briefly
the main sources and types of sources used in the research.
This
report will use findings from a variety of resources including sources of
secondary research that includes a range of books and authority websites. The
resources cover Diana’s fashion experiences from when she was first brought
into the public eye right through to the months before her untimely death.
Introduction
The
aim of this essay is to investigate to what extent Princess Diana learnt to use
fashion to convey emotions and messages. I want to find out about certain
fashion choices that she made and how deliberate those decisions were. For
example, was Diana influenced by other people wanting her to look a certain way
or did she make those choices for herself. I want to look into some of the key fashion choices that Diana made, such as
her wedding dress and the famous ‘Revenge Dress’. I wish to discover more about
these examples and the impact they had on the wider fashion industry, as each
of the dresses gained an enormous amount of interest, not just from the British
public but also globally.
As part of my
investigations I aim to look at outfits in the context of the different periods
of her life. This will include her time before marriage, her married life and
the rest of her life after her break-off with the Royal Family. It seems that
Diana managed to channel her inner feelings through her style and as she was
the most popular royal the public wanted to know everything.
GOOD BUT TELL US ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH -
BOOKS!!!!! ALSO THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE? GENDER/STATUS/SEMIOTICS??? CAN YOU
IDENTIFY ONE TO BE OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE - SEMIOTICS i.e. COMMUNICATION?
Discussion - USE SUBTITLES TO LABEL DRESSES
Diana’s Fashion before Marriage
NURSERY
OUTFIT? PLUS DATE
Every
single one of Diana’s outfits were planned and thought out. She was always
asking ‘what would she be communicating?’ YES THIS IS SEMIOTICS. CAN YOU INCLUDE SOMETHING HERE? If she wore certain things. In the
early days at the age of 19 she was very young and naïve. Her first picture was
the infamous see through Laura Ashley skirt. Photographers had deliberately put
her in front of the light, making her skirt see-through revealing her legs.
This was the first official photograph of her and the press had managed to
perceive her how they wanted to. However it is said that even from this first
picture she was communicating her emotions through fashion. The skirt was
covered in a small heart print and Diana was very much in love with Prince
Charles.
BLACK TAFFETA DRESS PLUS DATE
Charles
was 12 years Diana’s senior and at her first royal engagement she wanted to
look grown up and sophisticated. She enlisted the help of the Emanuel’s, David
and Elizabeth. Diana wanted a strapless black dress. For a girl of Diana’s age
black was seen to be the most sophisticated colour. She chose a sample dress
from the Emanuel’s and although it was pretty it did not fit like a glove.
Diana did not have anyone to suggest alterations to her, which resulted in the
dress being deemed too revealing. Not only was it seen to be too revealing but
in the royal mind black was seen to be the colour of mourning. The infamous
black taffeta dress was the first indication that Diana would depart from the
routine royal clothing and experiment making striking and original fashion
choices. THIS
IS ALL GREAT BUT TOO PERSONAL. REFERENCE!
BLACK TAFFETA DRESS PLUS DATE
Diana’s
next mistake was to be in her choice of outfit for the official announcement of
her engagement to Prince Charles. She was still quite unexperienced at shopping
for royal outfits and no more would show that than this particular one. Diana
had the idea to visit ‘Belville Sasoon’, Belinda Belville and David Sasoon, who
had made dresses for her mother in the past. Diana visited their shop to have a
look and find inspiration. Diana knew that she wanted to wear blue to
compliment her sapphire engagement ring. Unfortunately for Diana and the
designers, neither of them were in the shop at the time and the shop assistant
didn’t recognise her shy young customer. The assistant didn’t think that Diana
looked as if she could afford her goods and gave an imposing approach, to which
Diana walked out of the shop and into another shop. She purchased a suit by
Cojana. The suit had “a scalloped
edge and an unbecoming, tight belt. Its print blouse was tied in a large
pussy-cat bow to one side, and the skirt covered the knee over thick, patterned
tights and flat shoes. Wearing a no-nonsense wrist watch and holding a handbag,
Diana looked plump and uncomfortable.” (Howell, 1998, p.25). QUOTES LONGER THAN 2 LINES SHOULD BE SEPARATED OUT FROM
MAIN TEXT AND INDENTED i.e.
This
was no outfit for a girl of Diana’s age it was clear that she needed proper
advice and guidance. Unknown to Diana at this time, these early outfit
disasters would only help her discover and learn that the way she dressed would
be so powerful and meaningful.
Diana
needed a well thought out outfit for everyday that she would be seen. As a
future queen of Britain at this time, Diana needed to use British designers.
Some of her favourite designers included David Sasoon, Catherine Walker and
Elizabeth and David Emanuel.
Married Years - BREAK THIS SECTION DOWN WITH SUBTITLES NAMING THE DRESSES
WEDDING DRESS PLUS DATE
For
Diana one of the biggest turning points was her marriage to Prince Charles. On
the 29th of July 1981 Diana emerged from a rather small carriage at
St Pauls Cathedral. She was wearing the creation of David and Elizabeth
Emanuel. The dress had been kept a
secret, no drawings had been made and was sewn by a single seamstress behind
locked doors. The dress was “made of 45
feet of ivory silk taffeta, and trimmed with antique Carrick-Ma-Cross lace. The
25-foot veil and train, securely held by the ravishing Spencer diamond tiara,
was hand sewn with ten thousand mother-of-pearl sequins. With full sleeves,
frills and bows it was gathered into a voluminous, rustling crinoline that
proved almost too large for the confines of the carriage that took her to St
Paul’s.” (Howell, 1998, p.37). SEPARATE AND INDENT i.e.
Diana
indeed intended to send out messages and emotions through her wedding dress. “Any bride in a white wedding dress, whether
deliberately or not is sending out pagan messages of virginity, dedication,
sacrifice and promise. This exuberant, Victorian-style dress was intended by
Diana to signal a fairy-tale conclusion to what, we later came to realize, was
a barely satisfactory royal romance. The dress ushered in the sentiment of all
fairy tales that end with marriage to a prince’… and they lived happily ever
after’.” (Howell, 1998, p.37). SEPARATE AND INDENT i.e.
This
quote from Howell explains how Diana wanted the wedding dress to be
‘fairy-tale’ in style as well as being a traditional wedding dress. In Diana’s
mind she thought that her choice of dress would tell the world that she and
Charles were there to stay, to live happily ever after. YES GOOD TO FOLLOW UP
QUOTE. CAN YOU DO THIS WITH THE OTHERS?
Following
Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles they had two children. Prince William on the
21st June 1982 and Prince Harry on the 15th September
1984. In the following 3 years after Harry’s birth Diana went through a
difficult time. Firstly with Charles admitting he was in contact with Camilla
Parker-Bowles. HE ONCE SAID “Do you seriously expect me to be the first Prince of Wales
in British history not to have a mistress?” (Howell, 1998, p.64). THIS QUOTE CAN STAY IN THE MAIN TEXT BECAUSE IT IS LESS
THAN 2 LINES Secondly there was
her new sister-in-law, Prince Andrew’s wife Sarah Ferguson. Fergie, as she
became known, began to blossom and in turn Diana’s popularity began to decline.
This was the first time ever that Diana had received bad press. The public had
decided that Diana was troubled, self-absorbed and a mere fashion plate.
Whereas Fergie was cheery, confident and learning to dress with charm. (Howell, 1998, p.64) IS
THIS A GENERAL REFERENCE FOR THE WHOLE PARAGRAPH?
‘Suddenly
everybody said “Oh isn’t Fergie marvellous, a breath of fresh air. Thank god
she’s more fun than Diana.” IS THIS A QUOTE?
REFERENCE? So Diana was
listening and reading every line. “I felt terribly insecure”.’ (Howell, 1998,
p.64). In truth this was the least of Diana’s worries. Despite her youth,
beauty and charm Charles remained uninterested. In attempts to win back
Charles’ attention she dressed up and had fun. Diana, traditionally a country
girl who went to boarding school, she now found herself in the middle of a city
with shops and parties. It was inevitable that this wouldn’t go unnoticed to other admirers.
CARING DRESS PLUS DATE
Another
notable dress worn by Diana was what she called her ‘caring dress’ (Lusher,
2008). This dress was designed by David Sassoon who was one of her favourite
designers and “who made more than 70 outfits for the Princess” (Lusher, 2008).
Diana was criticised by the press as she was seen wearing the caring dress a
number of times. Unknown to them there was a good reason Diana chose to wear
this dress time and time again on visits to children across the globe. The
bright and colourful dress was always reused by Diana on public visits to sick
and suffering children because the bright colours were appealing and made them
at ease in her presence. This dress was seen in Nigeria, Brazil and a London
Aids Hospice after she had first noticed its effect of children when visiting a
hospital (Lusher, 2008).
The
Princess met James Hewitt a handsome young polo player and they had a full
blown love affair conducted in two phases from 1986-1987 and then from
1990-1991. Diana soon began to dress for him. It was the designers who started
to pick up signals that would go unnoticed to other people. “There were these little
messages!” Jasper Conran recalls “There was a certain maturing. She became a
woman rather than a girl!” instead of her usual sensible flat Manolo pumps she
went to Jimmy Choo for the latest 2½ inch heels. “Also when buying clothes for
her private wardrobe, along with her usual Highgrove blazers, sexy revealing
dresses were being added in.” (Howell, 1998, p.75) Here is a shift in Diana’s
dress. It went unnoticed to the public eye at first but she was close to a lot
of her designers and they were aware of the changes to her personal wardrobe
and what these changes might represent. DO YOU HAVE AN EXAMPLE TO USE HERE?
KING FAHD DRESS PLUS DATE
Learning
from every fashion success and failure, Diana worked on her own way to
communicate with the public. “She found out the royal rules the hard way” says
David Sassoon, “Now she began to break them” (Howell,
1998, p.79-80). Diana’s experiments were bold and she attracted
criticism. For example in 1985 Diana wore a bold outfit, a wrap-over gown cut
in way that was just like a dressing gown. Often Diana went too far in her
desire to project herself in a memorable way. Over time the princess’ fashion
choices became more theatrical and were even said by some to have gone beyond
fashion. It seemed that the outfits were in fact more similar to costumes. An
example of this is when Diana and Charles went to meet King Fahd on his arrival
at Gatwick airport where Diana wore a “gold frogged suit like a drum
majorette’s and the press wrote that she looked like a cut-out from the cover
of the Beatles’ ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album” (Howell, 1998, p.79-80). With this
particular outfit it would appear Diana had started to over think her fashion
choices so much that she had become too bold and literal. People could
certainly see why she wearing what she was but had it become too much?
Stephen
Jones, a young hat-maker, studied Diana’s appearance carefully. Stephen said
that ‘”as a Milliner you’re aware that when someone puts a hat with an outfit
it turns it into a costume. It adds
drama, status and theatricality, and the person behaves a little differently.
When I met the Princess at Kensington Palace she was always interested in the
effect – “How will people see this? How will this be interpreted?” ‘(Howell,
1998, p.80)
THE
VENGEANCE DRESS PLUS DATE
Designer
Christina Stambolian was the designer of perhaps the most talked about dress
that Diana would ever wear. The evening that Diana wore this outfit in 1994 she
attended a public engagement at the Serpentine gallery. On the very same evening
Prince Charles was being interviewed with James Dimbleby on Charles: The
Private Man, The Public Face. In this interview Charles affirmed his adultery
with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana was not scheduled to wear this particular
dress that evening as she had bought it a few years earlier but it was deemed
to be not fitting for royal attire. Diana had thought about how she wanted to
be seen and wanted to knock Charles off of the headlines. The dress was “a
short black dress with a vee bodice in silk jacquard, falling onto a chiffon
skirt using Italian fabrics” (Modlinger, 1998, p.109). ‘The Americans
christened it the “I’ll show you” dress and the “Vengeance Dress” ‘(Howell,
1998, p.154). The British named it the “Revenge Dress”. ‘This was the
devastating wisp of black chiffon with which Diana flipped her husband clean
off the front pages the morning after his damaging televised interview.’
(Howell, 1998, p.154). This is the
perhaps best example of Princess Diana using fashion to convey her emotions.
She conveyed exactly the message that she wanted to with the dress without
having to say a single word. Diana had had years of practise with her fashion
choices but “Never before had a woman selected her outfit with such tactical
brilliance.” (Wackerl, 2012, p.106).
After the Royal Family
On
the 28th of August 1996 Diana and Charles divorced. Diana was free
of her royal title and obligations and became Lady Diana Spencer. This
transition had a noticeable impact on her fashion choices from this point
onwards. The press and public still took notice of Diana despite parting from
the royal family, as she was still popular with the public and still the mother
of William and Harry. David Sassoon observed this too, he said “The biggest transformation took place once the
Princess got divorced – then she no longer had to wear British designs, so she
spread her wings, and opened the wardrobe to Versace, Valentino and Dior.”
(Modlinger, 1998, p.126). SEPARATE AND INDENT i.e.
Diana
herself said “from now on, I am going to own myself and be true to myself. I no
longer want to live someone else’s idea of what and who I should be.” (Howell,
1998, p.184).
Diana had come full circle in her approach to fashion, no longer
was she being dictated too or being dictated by public and press opinion.
Diana’s style was simple and chic, this shows her becoming true to herself and
having a lighter approach to fashion. Diana continued to work with designers
such as Valentino and Versace amongst others, who offered her designs in
keeping with her new style. She became free in her ability to choose whatever
she wanted to wear. THIS IS YOUR RED, NOT MINE!!!!
The Auction
On
the 25th of June 1997 Diana held an auction at Christie’s in New
York. The auction was of Diana’s royal working wardrobe and included 79 lots.
(Howell, 1998, p.200). It would seem that the inspiration for the auction came
from Prince William, Diana noted in a letter dated June 1997. (Modlinger, 1998,
p.138). There were 1,100 potential buyers that attended the auction in New York.
The first lot to come up for auction more than doubled its opening price,
indicating that the auction was going to be more successful than indicted
(Howell, 1998, p.200). In total the auction raised £1,960,150, all of which
along with proceeds of the catalogue sales were donated to Charites close to
Diana’s heart which included AIDS and Cancer charities (Modlinger, 1998,
p.138.)
This
auction was symbolic for Diana as it was a defining moment in her separation
from the royal family. The pieces that were auctioned were from a time in her
life in which she was ultimately less happy. Diana was at a stage where she was
starting to enjoy the freedom in her life and this was noted by many people
close to her including designers such as Karl Lagerfeld who said “she had never
looked so good, so fashionable, as in the last six months. I think that she
finally felt free …” (Modlinger, 1998, p.138).
Diana
was known for her charity and humanitarian work and this auction was an
opportunity to turn something that at times had been quite negative for her
into something positive. Modlinger in her book ‘Diana Woman of Style’
(Modlinger, 1998, p.142) observes that the “Christie’s auction was a
master-stroke, linking the Princess’ work, her passion for fashion, and also
her humanitarian qualities. In auctioning off those dresses, she left a global
legacy.” Ironically to this day the
legacy of the auction continues, as her tragic death immortalized her and as
such the dresses continue to give fascination and raise money for charity when
they come up for sale (Modlinger,1998, p.142).
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