Welcome back, lovelies!
We’re going to do something different for this week’s Yellow Dress Press.
We’re going to focus entirely on Diana, Princess of Wales, who we sadly lost 22 years ago today.
And we’re going to start with story time, because Diana has always been hugely important to me.
I grew up in the ‘90s in a family of royal watchers. They kept abreast of what was going on with Diana and Charles, and were Team Diana all the way. They woke up early to watch her wedding. They went to see her when she toured Nova Scotia in 1983. They saved newspaper clippings and magazines with her face on the cover. They entered beauty pageants where every teenage girl said that their dream for the future included marrying Prince William (this idyllic childhood didn’t take place in Berkshire, so I think we all know how their futures turned out). They passed their love of royalty and Diana onto me.
I remember clearly the night she died. We were devastated. But her legacy lived on.
When I was in (I want to say) sixth grade, I wrote a profile on my hero: Diana. Not just because she was a princess, but also for her work with HIV/AIDs awareness and land mines.
When I was in my final year of university, I wrote my journalism thesis on the media coverage surrounding her death and how it compared to (and evolved into) the coverage surrounding Michael Jackson’s death. I got to interview the former London bureau chief of The New York Times and he gave me a play-by-play of exactly what it was like working and living in London at that time.
So, Diana’s always been a part of my life and my story.
It’s cliché at this point, but to me, Diana has always symbolized quiet strength, resiliency, and vitality.
For every push back, she took a step forward. For every bit of sadness, she turned it into joy for another person. We still see her effects today on the monarchy, from how William and Harry conduct their royal duties, to how Kate and Meghan have been carefully and delicately welcomed into the royal fold, to fashion and charity work and childcare. Her stamp is everywhere for the Cambridges and the Sussexes.
Diana was warm, she was loving. She added sparkle and glamour to the royal family at a time they needed it. She gave us fairy tale magic and inspired us all to be a little bit better, do a little bit more for other people, and love a little bit harder.
It’s hard to know or imagine what she would be doing today, but I think we’d likely see more of the same: a loving mother, a doting grandmother, a dutiful public figure passionate about her causes, and an ever-evolving fashion plate who’d probably still be topping best dressed lists.
How do you remember Diana?
Elsewhere:
Learn more about the opulent Spencer Tiara over on The Court Jeweller.
We have to wait an entire season to see her, but Emma Corinn will play Diana on the fourth season of The Crown.
Diana’s best summer looks (and how to replicate them) over at Vogue.
Also at Vogue, Diana’s beauty evolution, from fresh-faced ingenue to royal icon.
Over at BuzzFeed, an older article but a good one: Princess Diana was the opposite of everything royals represented.
Before she died, Diana auctioned off a bunch of her dresses at Christie’s to benefit charity. Here’s a cool documentary about where some of those dresses ended up.
Hailey Bieber posed for Vogue Paris in a series of Diana-inspired looks. I’m meh on this whole thing, mainly for the Hailey Bieber of it all…
And finally, from 2017:
Diana Book Recommendations:
The Diana I Knew: Loving Memories of the Friendship Between an American Mother and Her Son's Nanny Who Became the Princess of Wales by Mary Robertson
Imagine if your nanny was the future Princess of Wales? This is a touching memoir of the American woman who hired Diana to be her child’s nanny just before she and Charles became engaged and traces their lives through to Diana’s death.
Buy here.
The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown
There’s no shortage of biographies on Diana, but for my money, I thoroughly enjoyed this one by former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, who witnessed most of this first-hand as a journalist at the time.
Buy here.
A Dress for Diana by David and Elizabeth Emanuel
David and Elizabeth Emmanuel won the commission of a lifetime when they were chosen to design Diana’s wedding dress. This informative book goes into the design process, the making of, their relationship with Diana throughout the years, and great insight into the wedding day.
Buy here.
Dork of the Week:
When you’ve got it, flaunt it! This is Diana heading into an official dinner in Bonn, West Germany, in 1987.
See you next week!