When the dress went up for auction in 2013, auction house Kerry Taylor described it as “probably one of the most ornate and romantic of all Princess Diana’s dresses.” It would not be surprising therefore if that was the reason why it was chosen for the highly anticipated poster Spencer, the director’s film Pablo Larraìn in competition with the next one Venice Film Festival.
The image is dramatic. Diana, played by Kirsten Stewart, entrusts her pain and despair to a cloud of ivory tulle and taffeta with golden leaves and flowers and sparkling applications.
Right away the royal fashion experts were quick to look for the precise reference that may have inspired Jacqueline Durran, the double Oscar-winning costume designer for Anna Karenina e Little Women. Some have seen us the wedding dress of the Princess of Wales even if only perhaps for the record amount of silks and lace used by Elizabeth and David Emanuel or, perhaps here we are getting a little closer, it is appropriate to dust off the Diaghilev dress.
Creation of the same Emanuel, the dress is inspired by the costumes made by Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, the dance company conceived and directed by Sergei Diaghilev in the early twentieth century. It was not a commission but a dress made by the creative duo with a headband, a petticoat and two matching sleeves for a fashion show in support of the Red Cross. The size was perfect for Diana who bought it to wear it at least three times: on 3 July 1986 on the occasion of a gala dinner at theGerman embassy with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Richard von Weizsaecker; on July 22 of the same year at Royal Opera House for the Ivan the Terrible of the Bolshoi ballet and for the first of the chapter of the saga of James Bond The Living Daylights (007 – Danger Zone) a year later.
The dress was one of those beaten at Christie’s famous charity auction held in 1997 by Diana herself shortly before her disappearance. At the time it was sold for just over 25,000 pounds. It returned to the market in 2013: it seems that an American museum had won it for 102 thousand dollars. “It’s a fantasy. It shines, it shines, it’s every little girl’s dream of what a princess should wear, ”Kerry Taylor added in that circumstance. In fact, the press has renamed that dress Fairytale dress, a label that would fit perfectly on the poster that portrays the interrupted fairy tale of the princess in tears.
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