Royal Fashion: Diana Edition

Pretty woman. Ugly dress.

Catherine Walker did so many great pieces for but loved these two late life gowns.

Perfect . Just the right amount of sex appeal.

She was not pretty. She was a very plain face with a big nose. She had a good figure. She had some good clothes. She had good makeup. Her voice was dull. OP's pic shows Di trying far too hard. What is she doing there, next to a car in a car park dressed like that? How far we have moved on since she tragically died. She was a great AIDS campaigner and a great landmine campaigner: that is what she needs to be remembered for (see link). She said you can't get sick from shaking hands with an AIDS patient: that was big back then.

R4 It was some event she attended. It was very striking in motion, she leaps out of her car and sprints over to the guy she shook hands with, with that capelet thing flying. People dubbed it her F U dress.

She was my princess. I was her queen.

It was a Vanity Fair party. The whole world saw Diana leap out the car in that dress and wondered "Is Charles crazy?"

Yes, everyone saw the footage. It was a jaw-dropping entrance. Her legs were a mile long.

They should have wondered if she was crazy at that point. She probably was by then, poor woman. Her looks are very Spencer: not good if you have the chance to age, which tragically she did not. If she had lived and had escaped the harem which the Fayeds had ready for her, she would have gone on to be a great humanitarian like Eleanor Roosevelt.

It was THE fu dress of the century . She was so much more stylish in the 90s,but to be fair,most women dressed like shit in the 80s.

She wore that to a Vanity Fair party? All dressed up with nowhere to go. Sadly desperate, no friends Di.

It is laughable now but a Vanity Fair function was once exclusive and completely restricted to first rate celebrity.

The dress is classic sex, beauty, fashion, chic--but not cheap--and the perfect revenge.

Diana forever.

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The white dress and the blue plaid are from the Dorothy Zbornak line.

She was just finďing her own sense of stylè in the later yeàrs.

I personally liked the Versace stuff she was wearing in the year or so before she died.

casusal Di

She always seemed to be walking roung parking lots containing Fords and other downmarket brands.

In her last year her personal style was becoming apparent.

She was very plain, but she had air of elegance and sophistication that is pretty much gone now.

Not long after the FU dress, she wore a light blue cocktail dress that was very timeless and equally sexy. I remember thinking that she would never look any better. Yikes- she didn't.

[quote] She always seemed to be walking roung parking lots containing Fords and other downmarket brands.

Horrors! Sounds perfectly GHASTLY!

She benefitted greatly from not having the usual British cankles.

Diana was a good-looking woman in the way Englishwomen of the gentry and aristocracy tend to be. Compared to the inbreds into which she married , she was a raving beauty.

Had she lived, I doubt if she would have married Dodi Fayed. Who knows whom she would eventually marry. She would have lost the title, had she married. One thing is for sure -- she would have had fallings-out with her daughters-in-law.

She was extraordinarily attractive. If you look at other aristocracy, she beats them by a mile.

[quote] She would have lost the title, had she married.

Titles don't just disappear. She would have been Diana Princess of Wales Mrs Dodi Fayed. It is customary for the divorced wife to keep her ex husband's title or a variation until they remarry; some women kept their title by their previous husband even after they remarried eg Maureen Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava Mrs John Maude. Same sort of thing with Margaret Duchess of Argyll. Diana as the mother of the future king would have remained a princess, no doubt there.

Absolute bullshit R27 - don’t make stuff up, you only look stupid.

“Diana Princess of Wales Mrs Dodi Fayed”!

If she had remarried, to Fayed, for example, she would have been styled as “Lady Diana Fayed”.

The dowager Marchioness of Dufferin & Ava’s right to retain her previous title was spurious.

The Princess Anne Mrs Mark Phillips was the thing back in the day R28.

[quote] The dowager Marchioness of Dufferin & Ava’s right to retain her previous title was spurious.

Maureen and the Queen Mother were great friends. Maureen had a town house in Knightsbridge (corner of Pavilion Rd and Hans Cres); the drawing room had a little staircase, a bit like the one in All About Eve. I saw the drawing room myself but without the Queen Mother; I could only imagine her there, it seemed to be a very appropriate place for the QM to come to visit her friend for afternoon tea (and the harder stuff).

She knew keeping the title was doubtful after her marriage to Judge Maude, but when asked why she kept it she always said, "Ava would have wanted it, darling." Ava died in WW2, RIP.

^This is the gayest conversation of all time.

She looked great in OP's photo, but I never liked that choker.

That choker needed a different neckline, the dress was too flimsy for it. In hindsight, the FU dress was a little underwhelming but like her wedding dress, it was perfect for that time and place. Her smile is forced, she acting as best as she could but she was devastated that Charles was admitting adultery with Camilla.

Nitpicking here, but I don't like the line of the sleeves on the black dress. They should have gone up a bit higher, just below the curve of the shoulder.

The ultimate LBD. It has a little train!

She had a big nose and a big chin and fluffy, dowdy old lady hair most of the time, and she was known in her time and is remembered variably as beautiful or at least as elegant and graceful.

I wish people would take note of this and focus more on carrying themselves with dignity and grace than having their faces sliced and diced and pumped full of fillers and Botox. Surely, Diana would not have made herself into a Real Housewife but would have aged like a human being.

She had star quality and was extremely photogenic. I always thought she looked gorgeous

She was insanely charismatic. No, she wasn't a beauty, and her fashion choices are viewed through rose-colored hindsight, but she was a very genuine and empathetic person, brimming with charm and barely controlled humor. There was no one like her before, or since.

That choker is worth a couple millions? Real pearls? Real jewels.

Real princess, not a Kardashian.

I don't get the royal thing at all. The Crown really substantiates my feeling about it, too, although I wouldn't presume to know how realistic that is or is not.

Rulers used to rule and now they make appearances. I would honestly have a hardscrabble working-class life than the life of any of the British royals. They seem to exist almost as living human sacrifices, with their misery and confinement and constriction being surrogate human sacrifices for the people. They're like prized livestock kept in the best conditions, fed the best foods, paraded around but without any freedom or sense of purpose. As The Crown depicts the queen, she's dedicated to her job and she seems like she could be a much worse person if she wanted to be, to her credit, but my god, she couldn't be duller. Liking horses and dogs are the only redeeming qualities. Anne rides horses. So what? They're like goldfishes just swimming around in a little bowl, playing endlessly through the window of a little castle. How in the fuck do they survive this way? The series doesn't quite present it this way, but I completely understand how Diana or Fergie or anyone who was raised as any kind of average human being would be driven to madness by having every aspect of living taken away from them. Even people in prison can express themselves. I don't know. I don't exactly feel sympathy for the ones born into it because they can't know any other way of living except through literature and movies but ugh, absolutely the worst life I can imagine living.

Regarding Diana's style: she was certainly a frump when she married, and until William was a toddler. But be fair. She married in mid-1981. By 1983 her clothes have already improved. In 1984 she started working with Catherine Walker and there was another big leap, with a few falters while she was pregnant with Harry. From 1985 till her death you would be hard-pressed to find her looking less than absolutely glamorous, in any of the millions of photos of her, unless she's pictured at the gym. Given that she was only 22 by 1984, and that the Royal family disdained stylists and makeovers, and that, as with Kate now, her clothes had to reflect Royal policy and the expectations of the people and places she was visiting, that's a pretty good effort.

Everyone who met her commented on her huge cornflower-blue eyes, flawless pale skin and beautiful smile, and as the DL often notes, she also had great legs, which were more noticeable after she left Charles and could wear high heels. She was very tall and willowy. Everyone knew her nose was large, but many thought this one imperfection saved her from blandness, and like all great photographic models, she understood early on her best angles for the camera and the best lighting to minimise it. In all the time she was alive, I never saw anyone comment that her jaw was a problem. From 1985 on she was glamour personified, and she had the narcissism to carry it off.

R40, you're too sympathetic. It wasn't that she had different interests from the Royals - at the start she didn't have ANY interests. She walked around with a Walkman playing Duran Duran or similar, and that was it. If she'd been still single, going clubbing would have been the limit of how she expressed her "freedom". She had no conversation or education at all (having failed her O levels and checked herself out of finishing school early), so it's unsurprising Charles found it very hard to connect with her. I am quite sure that if she had shown an interest in learning about the history of the monarchy (or its art, or its historic buildings) or acquainting herself in depth with Royal protocols they would have readily produced someone to instruct her, but she didn't . The primary interest she developed after the first couple of years was in her own appearance and the attention she was or was not receiving; the secondary was her noble causes. The kids seemed to rank somewhere around "where did I leave my glasses?".

Fergie, by contrast, appeared to get on fine with the family, but couldn't get a thing right in the eyes of the media, who were bewitched by Diana.

R41 She was practically a child. She said in an interview that she doesn't think it's quite right to say she and Charles didn't share any interests because both liked the company of other people, both liked volunteering with hospital patients, etc., and otherwise, she was a teenager who wasn't allowed by the royal family to have any interests, and she said that they told a story of her as being stupid because she had no academic career and she didn't get any credit for any personal growth after the marriage. She clearly was not stupid. She was insightful and articulate, even eloquent, in interviews, which means that she certainly was not dense. She thought and spoke well. It does seem she was reared to be more of an empty vessel than an overflowing cup.

Di had the profile of a Roman statue. Truly classic good looks.

I wish women still wore stockings, it looks so much more elegant than gazing at cottage cheese legs.

Tights or stockings R44?

Diana had “aristocratic good looks”, not plastic, “celebrity good looks”. I thought she was so beautiful when she first burst into the public sphere. Her willowy height, big, blue eyes, sandy blonde hair and gorgeous peaches-and-cream complexion made up for any deficiencies regarding her perfectly imperfect nose. It actually made her face charming. I will say that she wasn’t aging all that flawlessly, but her charisma mitigated that as well.

R44 I agree with you 100%. Modern women have this delusion that they must all have nice legs. But face it, between the cottage cheese legs, the spindly bird legs, the ugly knees, the visible veins and the hint of hair growth, it would behoove women to wear stockings to airbrush these flaws. I’m loathe to bring up this example, but look at Kate Middleton’s stockinged legs vs Meghan Markle’s dessicated uncovered twigs. I know which ones I like better.

But then again, we have an uncouth population who can’t even get behind shapewear like their grandmothers did. So many women have muffin tops of bulgy hips and act so dumb about how bad it looks. What a devolution.

R40 The British royals have gotten it wrong because they were raised wrong. I blame Elizabeth and Phillip for failing as parents, which is why their offspring seem so feckless.

Living a royal life is what you make of it. To have every need taken care of gives you lots of time to pursue worthy passion projects. So what if Anne rides horses? That’s what rich people do...look at Bloomberg’s daughter and Bill Gates’ daughter and even Bruce Springsteen’s daughter. It’s a valid sport and it develops good qualities in people who pursue it. People like Sophie, Edward’s wife, does a lot of good work with sex trafficking charities among her many causes. It can be very fulfilling to be a patron of a cause you hold dear. Outside of Britain, King Willem-Alexander is a pilot and still flies for KLM in his free time. The Swedish royals have several causes they’ve started to help children in impoverished nations. Give me that life over one where you worry about mortgage payments (IF you’re lucky enough to buy a house), a medical emergency ruining you, and losing a job to downsizing, even when you were a model employee for decades.

Camilla Parker Bowwow must be posting here. Diana was classically beautiful, amazing eyes and spectacular hair. Her figure was fashion model perfect. No, she wasn't perfect-she likely had some mental illness-probably some personality disorder- but, as she aged, she held her own against the ghastly BRF. And by god she didn't mistreat AIDS patients and was a crusader against land mines.

Now if you want to talk about inbred homely features...how about the horse face known as Princess Anne, the buck teeth of Fergie's girls, Charles dumbo ears. Horrors all of them including the Queen and her frumpiness-never without a boxy handbag on her arm. And Camilla-the Rottweiler...

Foxy.

I always loved how cautiously she and Clint Eastwood looked at each other in this snap

crush

Part of what made her attractive was that everybody knew that her private life was in turmoil. It made her relatable and approachable, since she was not born into the royalty, but came in as a "commoner" who married a prince. If she had blended in and everyone had been perfectly happy, she probably would have gotten complacent about her appearance and let herself go, "fat and happy." That would have been boring for the rest of us, and she would now be known as "Kate and Megan's mother-in-law."

But fate had other plans.

I thought her fashion choices were dreadful but it was the 80s..couldn’t she just wear Calvin Klein?

For as much as she was photographed throughout the years, there are probably less than a dozen unflattering photos of her. She was extremely photogenic, big nose and all.

People here have a strange notion of what attractiveness, appeal and beauty mean.

Having a nose is common the humanity, and unless someone is demented in the manner of a Jackson of Gary, Indiana, a Roman nose of appropriate dimensions for a face with large eyes, superb cheekbones and jawline, and an expressive mouth is just the thing. She looked noble, striking and endlessly interesting, which was quite a difference from the mousy, beribboned, flouncy girl Charles ruined.

I never was a fan of her, but a nitwit posting, "She was extremely photogenic, big nose and all," shows the vapid blindness and dull stupidity of the DL's cud-chompers.

We should be grateful to Philip, Diana, and now Kate for bringing height and even features into the BRF. Without them, we'd be stuck with a bunch of pop-eyed German dwarves.

Can you imagine what the offspring of Charles and Camilla would have looked like?

Thought I posted my favorite already but looks like it got lost. Cannes, ice blue

Yes, R29, and she was born “Princess Anne” - later, on her mother’s accession “The Princess Anne”.

Diana’s title prior to her marriage was “Lady Diana Spencer” - she would have reverted to that on her next marriage, with her husband’s surname, unless her new husband outranked her, in which case she would have been styled and titled as her husband’s wife.

In no way did Dodi Fayed outrank her.

Agreed R31 - even as I was typing my response I was thinking “this is really really gay”. But what the hell, I’m one of the Covid-19 unemployed, with way too much time on my hands!

But these things matter!

^^ R28, I mean

Several nose comments noted. Presumably you would have wished her to have the 'typical' ugly button nose that most every American girl is either born with or pays for in the summer between high school and college?

Diana had a lovely distinct nose, which added to her beauty.

She was lovely. I still miss her.

TIME

Timeless

Why Diana Mattered...a look at how the princess transformed a nation.

A nation? Diana transformed the world.

Princess Di

Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961-1997

Chic Diana

Diana Reborn

Diana

Princess of Wales

So young and innocent

Diana

In Her Solitude

Forever Diana

Lovely in pink

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Diana b&w

Beauty

Love these two

Chic

Paying tribute

So incredibly sad.

"Diana leap out the car in that dress and wondered "Is Charles crazy"

He didn't feel that at all. Charles is a homosexual, and was relieved to not have to do the duty with her anymore. From now on it would just be him and his bff Camila, raking all the royals over the coals.

She was the only member of the royal family (sans The Duchess of Windsor) who was ever chic and fashionable. And she was the only one who ever had any empathy and compassion.

Would you like to buy a bridge, R92? She had empathy and compassion for herself, and a good eye for what looked good on video. Markle Part 1.

If you haven't viewed it, give the doco Diana: In Her Own Words a look. Surprisingly well made, mature review of her life, with plenty of unpublished information. Available online for free streaming.

If anyone has the link to the previous (and relatively recent) Diana fashion thread that was actually useful and not spammed all to hell by the picture troll, that would be lovely, thanks.

The Mario Testino photo shoot for VF was the ultimate. Finally she’d gotten away from the frumpy bubble hair and into piece-y longer layers, a side part and long side swept bangs.

Interesting that she kept her hair short vs nowadays Kate and Meghan are married to their very long hair. Kate looks better with it but Meghan could look chic with a pixie cut.

Meghan is not married to her long hair.

She's married to her long-hair extensions, which she's denied and denied.

Two beauties

Fashion is transient. Good taste is eternal.

Mario Testino’s portraits annoy me. Yes, we get it, you’re showing your subjects in an animated, informal light - literally a fresh perspective. I’d rather see them mysterious and regal.

Diana was so ubiquitous back then - I often wonder what people born after her death think about her, or if they do much at all.

God, fuck off, Picture Troll. Nobody needs to see 20 pictures of Diana in a row. We know what she looked like.

In this (rather odd) clip, I think we get a flash of what Diana would have looked like in her older years.

R103 She looks like a well-styled fiftysomething English lady. Interesting. Pretty ordinary and somehow very ethnically definable as English.

R101 She really was ubiquitous. I was born in 1978. I never cared about the royals at all. Britain had no conscious place in my life at all. I remember when she died. I had just turned 19. I was on my family's computer in the middle of the night and I remember vividly seeing the AOL news screen slide to the left and reveal that Diana was in the hospital in critical condition after a car crash in a tunnel while being pursued by paparazzi. It hit me really hard, probably because I had never known anyone who had died, and to idea of this ubiquitous celebrity who seemed to be held up as something of a saint being mangled and dying in such a brutal way just kind of scrambled my brain for a little while.

R104 It's the coloring of course, but also the long English nose.

R105 The nose and the eyes. Diana had the same type of English eyes that Hugh Grant has, which I notice because I have them, too. (I'm 60 percent British according to Ancestry DNA, with the rest Irish and a little Swedish and Norwegian.) I always noticed the way their eyes tilt doward at the outer edges but never noticed my own until a black friend told me I have "chinky eyes" about 10 years ago. Now when I see pictures of myself as a little boy with my bowl cut, all I see is a little Asian lady with blue eyes. 😂

I doubt Charles is gay. He is, however, hungry for mothering and like so many other men in his family, with the possible exception, oddly, of his oldest son, gravitates to dominant women. Tina Brown put it perfectly in her biography of Diana, the virginal beauty that many men would have been only too delighted to teach bedroom to - that Charles wanted to be mastered, not to lead. All the women he truly gravitated to were both motherly and sexual.

Charles is a Beta born to an Alpha spot. That's not the same thing as liking men.

His big mistake was not proposing to Camilla early enough, "past" or no "past". It was the late seventies, she was moving into her late twenties and wanted to get married and have a family, and Andrew Parker-Bowles was alleged to be one of the best fucks in England's social scene. He had an affair with Princess Anne.

What Charles wanted in his intimate life was earthy, unself-conscious, motherly, funny, and warm, someone who also shared his love of country pursuits. Diana was, in reality, none of these things.

Anyone with half an eye could see they were doomed.

^She did, however, provide the rest of us with endless sources of fascination with her ever-changing wardrobe, hair colour, hair-dos, etc.

She really wore some howlers. We've discussed those before. My top pick on that front is still the one she wore to one of Charles' polo matches: long pleated skirt, long top over the hips, with red low-heeled shoes paired with spotted ankle socks.

On a woman nearly six feet tall. I can remember seeing those photos. I think I was having a cuppa that morning and spit it out seeing the photos in the DM.

People really say 'having a cuppa'?

I thought young diana was pretty in a plain way, but I have to agree. Diana was attractive, but she wasn't a beauty. Her features were very masculine as she hit her 20's and she was plain looking. Now she finally came into her own as far as style and so her hair and her clothes etc. and her natural looking make up all created a very pleasing image. Perfect really for the royal family. She was Plain/Pretty...like Sophie Wessex, and not some glamourous knock out. She had that clean athletic build, and her features were regular.

I loved her sheep sweater. They've re-released it and there's a wait list.

One thing that black Revenge Dress did for Diana was give her a waist and the hourglass shape she didn't have. She had a big waist, a boring midsection. The look was all in the stupendous legs, beautiful skin, and large blue eyes.

Diana was at her most beautiful when she was (unfortunately) underweight. The weight loss showed her cheekbones with the pretty round cheeks or “bloom” of youth.

I disagree about the underweight thing, she went through a very skinny phase right after her marriage and she looked terrible. She looked best around the time of Harry’s birth, maybe because she really let her gorgeous blonde mane flow.

Skinny Di. Made her face look pointy.

Diana was not beautiful but she had "IT" (eg. charisma, star appeal, the ability to light up a room etc...).

Unfortunately, neither her sons nor her daughters-in-law have "IT"

She had the worst taste of any royal besides her MIL EVA. Her outfits were hideous. So was her wedding gown

Gorgeous big hair Di. This was the peak of her youthful beauty in my opinion

R111 My mother still has her wool sheep sweater from the 80s. I had her pull it out. In my memory she had the exact same sweater, but after we saw hers we realized it does not have a black sheep. They are just all white. At first I was a little disappointed, but then when I thought about it it was so much more my mother that way.

I think Kate has “it.” At least like Diana she has height, and luxurious, dominant hair, of a totally different style and color from her mother-in-law (lest one try to compare the two). Lovely taste in clothes and wears them well. She also gives off a saner vibe, which could be interpreted as less charisma I suppose. I do wish that she, too, would put on 5 to 10 pounds.

Diana had an angular face and weight loss sharpened her features. It was not a good look. She was never beautiful.

Many of you forget the fashion styles of the eighties when Diana came on the scene.

Diana wore the frills and flounces early in her public life because that's what was in style at the time. She wore more "conservative" and somewhat dowdy clothes for her age to avoid embarrassment because she was going to be the future Queen of England. Her clothes were endlessly talked about in the newspapers and magazines . (the good, bad and ugly). Diana was a fashion icon of her time and she sold magazines when she was on the cover. No one in the Royal Family looked like her or dressed like her. Thankfully, she learned what suited her body type (thanks to stylists) and she gradually evolved into a more sleek style later on in the nineties.

I loved Diana’s nose. It made her look snotty and superior in a good way, and was balanced by her warmth.

Great hair and beautiful long legs, you can purchase wigs but you can't buy good legs. Kate has gorgeous legs too.

R118 - this is my favorite Diana hairstyle.

R120 - Kate has the height, hair and style but not the pizzazz quality of Diana. Diana's huge blue eyes were just so expressive and she had a lovely smile. Here is a video showing some of her razzle dazzle. At times, Diana just glowed with radiance and the camera loved her. I was fortunate to see her at a public function on a royal tour and I can honestly say that she had that certain something. You know it when you see it.

Diana in the iconic Elvis dress.

The Diana haircut. Skater Dorothy Hamill had a similar style.

She had total resting bitch face but her voice was very warm and soothing and she was so demure that she seemed fragile despite her stature. Interesting combination of features and manner.

I don't think you could ever describe Diana as cute or pretty, but she had large beautiful eyes and she was tall and lean with a great smile, which, with her developed sense of style made her quite striking. It was wonderful to see her find her confidence and show it off to the cameras. To be fair, she had a mannish face. And if she had been given the chance to age, I think she would have become more "handsome" as is often the way with many English women. But because of the accident, she remains forever young in our imaginations.

(She was only 36 years old when she died! We watched her in the public eye for half of her lifetime!)

According to this, she would have aged to look a bit like Ellen DeGeneres or Edie Falco.

Instead of being proud of his wife, Charles was jealous of Diana's popularity. The crowds would call out for her when he was shaking hands. She had a relaxed and genuine connection with people. I think Charles' upbringing prevented him from getting TOO close to people. He's friendly but formal. Diana would hug people without hesitation and had a great rapport with others especially with children and the elderly. You can't fake sincere interest in others.

Kate seems to care about people too but she's more timid in her manner. A big difference between Diana and Kate is that Kate knows her place in the pecking order. She doesn't want to upstage her husband so she holds back a lot more. I've noticed that Kate has gained some confidence as she matures so perhaps her reticence will subside. Diana was very emotionally needy and therefore loved the adoration of the crowd. She was getting little love from Charles at home so when she was in public, she turned up the glamour and the people responded in kind. Diana didn't mind upstaging her husband. In fact, she probably did it on purpose to tick him off. Diana was THE star of the show wherever the couple went and Charles' resentment grew as the years went by. Both Charles and Diana were insecure and needy in their own ways. They had nothing in common. It was a disastrous union from the beginning.

I think the Royal Family underestimated the appeal of the Princess of Wales. The royals probably thought they wouldn't have anything to worry about with this 19-year-old mousy young woman and she would be easy to control. Boy, did they get their eyes opened soon enough.

One of my favorite Diana dresses.

I can’t believe I’m adding to this thread, but I think she looked her best in 1980 before the engagement. The chunk in her face hid the big nose. When she slimmed down forever after, her whole face was nose. Still eye catching of course, but never as lovely.

See example here...

Trump had a thing for Diana. He claimed that if not for her untimely death she would have been his First Lady. I'm sure she would have preferred crashing headfirst into that guardrail.

Thank you, R90. I remember watching the funeral and spotting the two Welsh Guards in the middle who were pallbearers and thinking they were very hot, especially the soldier second from the right in the photo you posted.

Dump is confused. He has no rapport with anyone, male or female and has paid for sex his entire life. The three baby mamas were for hire and two of them needed green cards. He must concluded he had a shot with Di because Di dated an "ayerab".

Diana would have had nothing to do with Trump. She likely thought of him--if she though of him at all--as vile, unattractive, crass, boorish and self-aggrandizing. Trump was not Diana's style at all. Trump can imagine Diana in his head all he wants. Trump with Diana is as much of a fantasy as Trump won the election. Diana had way too much class to put herself anywhere near Trump.

R132 is hilarious. He’s obviously taking his history lessons from a TV show (The Crown). Rose, the reality was much more complex. And no one else knows better what really happened than Charles (and possibly Camilla).

Trump was a narc. Diana was a narc. They were both pretty stupid, but she was at least smart enough to know that two narcs don't make a marriage.

I think your post is right, R107, except that it's not odd that William alone wasn't looking for a domineering mother. I think William had had Diana up to the gills by the time she died. I don't doubt he loved her - she was his mother - but he more than anyone but Charles knew what hard work she was. She must have frequently caused him feelings of serious hurt and betrayal. How would you feel if your mother went on TV to talk about your father's adulterous affairs while you were at high school (much less boarding school)? He has been schooled in Royal protocol and he knows when he looks back at those old clips that she was constantly, deliberately, upstaging the heir to the throne for her own aggrandisement. He was probably expected to comfort her during some of her tears and tantrums. Harry was only 9 when she died: too young and dependent on his parents to factor any of that into his development. Kate is doubtless aware of William's feelings, so she follows the example of the good things Diana stood for and steadfastly avoids those which upset William and the rest of the Royals. Also, her kids look like it isn't "treat day" when they get to see her.

Agree with R134. Once Diana lost her adolescent baby fat it made her nose and chin more prominent. She gradually got thinner and blonder and harder looking. I liked her actual hair color, a warm reddish brown, which you can see in pictures of her as a young teen.

Diana's natural hair color:

Diana met Trump and said he was creepy.

I just had a dream they had recreated her car crash for a documentary. Eugh. RIP

He would never have gotten his tiny hands on Diana.

For how much longer is Trump going to be in people's heads, figuring into the discussion no matter what the subject, as evidenced on nearly every DL thread? Serious question.

But as long as we're on the subject, weren't the Fayeds kind of Trump-like?

Fayed's are educated, sophisticated and possessed real wealth. The other? Not so much.

My mom and I went to the exhibit her brother put on? The traveling one?

It had her wedding dress and lots of other dresses/clothes. Even post eating disorder, she was a very thin woman. I marveled at how tiny the waists were on the dresses.

Harry was 13, r141, when Diana died. And actually, I would not put Diana in the same league as Dump re narcissism. I actually thing she was self involved, but not a true narcissist. She had feelings for others, like her children, and for people who were suffering, unlike Dump, who only cares about himself.

Diana looked elegant the night she died in those white trousers and black blazer.

R141 R150. Harry was 12 when Diana died. William was 15.

R152, Harry’s birthday is September 15. He was 15 days away from being 13, so I think it’s ok to approximate and say he was nearly 13.

William was always the looker, Harry got none of Di's good looks

I agree about the dismaying very skinny phase. She looked ill in some of those photos, which she probably was.

I also agree that she looked her most stunning after Harry was born and she let her hair get longer and came out one day in her "Vera Lynn" do - she cut it off quickly when the reaction wasn't as hoped, and went back to the fluffy layered bearskin rug hair. Shame.

Look how lovely she looked this way. And the suit was beautiful, too, if I remember. Diana at her best: fresh with the bloom of youth and young motherhood on her, dignified but youthful, tailored, a true English Rose.

She wasn't wearing any underthings when she crashed

Some photos of Di with the longer hair. Not bad.

I like Diana with short hair the best.

R157 She looks great there and I don't say this to be mean, but I was honestly struck by how much she resembles Boy George in the first photo...it's probably the hat and the half-inch-thick makeup, but the features aren't far off, either.

Kate also does the same heavily lined eye as Diana — it’s so dated.

Kate ditched the heavy eye liner last year and went for a lighter look.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

*mouth and nose are the same

While Diana was indeed a knockout in that revenge dress, I think it looked rather slutty and inappropriate. Oh well, I get what she was going for, and she certainly succeeded.

I posted long ago that Diana's face looks like William on her right, and Harry on her left.

Whoops, I may have it flipped - looks like Harry on her right side etc.

Here's the William side

And here's the Harry side

I never noticed the dramatic difference in her profile before, R165. How odd

She became a revengeful pig. Wah wah wah...poor her.

The outcry about the long hair was astonishing. She only kept it for one or two outings, the backlash was so severe. It's a pity she didn't have more gumption: she would have been able to have a lot of different do's if she stuck to her guns. She was, after all, a very young girl at the time and it's a pity she could have fun with her hair.

Another hair story: when she started dating Charles her hair was the classic "mousy" light-brown colour. I remember reading a Royal watcher who said, "Now she's Princess of Wales, wait for it to go blonde."

R3 is bi! Also, Dianna wasn't pretty, and the obsession of her from "gay men" is disgusting! The only good thing she accomplished was giving birth to sons who grew up as nice and hot men. Most UK and Australian women are fucking ugly and vile, generally homophobic, and offer nothing of substance! THE END!

R171 Diana was already on her way to blonde at that point. In the pre-engagement photo I've linked she's got blonde highlights

R172 - Something bothering you, dear? I seem to remember something about being photographed shaking hands with an AIDS patient to show people that they weren't lepers? The support that brought in cash for Doctor Bernardos and her other patronages as people lined up to pay large chunks of cash to be near her (that's the job royals are actually supposed to do)? The landmines campaign after the divorce?

Not pretty? Well, she wasn't chocolate box pretty, but dayum she was so photogenic it was hard to take a bad picture of her.

Yeah, not pretty: the gorgeous skin, the huge blue eyes, the fantastic legs, the thick beautiful hair . . .

She was better than "pretty": she was STRIKING and ridiculously photogenic.

Pretty is bland; what Diana had would never have faded with youth.

You wouldn't be our very own KGT, pet, would you, trying to slip in a comment dissing all women from two continents (btw, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbi, Naomi Watts, Isla Fisher, and Elizabeth Debicki are all Australian, dear vile? Really?)

As for British women: dear me, Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman, Helen Mirren (ever seen her young and nude? No? Try it, you might like it), Kate Beckinsale, oh, and . . .

Julie Christie, quite possibly one of the most beautiful women who ever graced the screen.

Diana was not "mousy brown" when she was dating Charles. She was already doing heavy highlighting. But after the marriage, the highlighting got heavier and heavier, until one day she looked full-on platinum and double-processed. She softened it after that, and the need for heavy highlighting may have been one reason that she went back to the short, layered cut - to grow out the harsh platinum phase faster, and keep the highlighting to a less massive project every couple of months.

God knows she had the money, hairdresser, and time to keep the longer look highlighted, but perhaps she just didn't feel like dealing with it plus the heavy criticism.

I can't think why it came in for so much criticism. It looked lovely and feminine, allowed for more updo creativity, softened her whole face, and hair had enough beautiful texture to carry it.

Did I forget to mention Jean Shrimpton, THE iconic model of the Sixties? Patti Boyd? All those girls that other girls across the West wanted to look like?

Kate Moss? More recently, Rosie Huntington-Whitely? Elizabeth Hurley's name ring a bell? Jane Seymour? Katie Price? Stella Maxwell?

Diana had her hair done at The Ritz the day she died. Or rather the day before she died. At least she looked good in her casket, contrary to reports she only had minor facial injuries.

Well said, R174. To this day, I'm mesmerized by photos of her. It's an aesthetic experience is all I can say.

She must have had perky boobs to go braless at 36. Maybe she didn't bother putting Harry on the tit as she could already see he was destined to be a tosser!

Not my favorite hairdo of hers. But it did add to her powerful height. Actually maybe I do kind of like it. I guess I want to brush out the curls or something.

I like Diana with short hair and less hairspray. I wonder how she would have aged.

R180 - Hate the hair in the photo - it is totally Mother of the Bride.

R182, for all her status as a fashion icon Diana had some very dowdy looks going on. The best her hair ever looked was in that Mario Testino photo shoot where a stylist evidently convinced Diana to ditch the curling irons and hairspray.

Was the haircut at R180 an early "speak to the manager" style?

Was Diana a Karen? Was she a frau? We all know she was a Frau-fantasy.

Why was she wearing a swimsuit on her final night?

Not too many women could pull off this coat so spectacularly.

she never was a great beauty. but she looked princess-pretty once she married into that family of frogs.

Damn, I loved Diana. I still miss her. She was something else.

She WAS a great beauty. Great beauties are not the women with the most symmetrical features. They are the women whose looks differ enough from the mainstream to draw the eye, and who have the confidence to flaunt those looks in the manner of a great beauty.

Besides the wonderful skin, eyes and legs and the abundant blonde hair, in public Diana radiated a combination of glamorous and flirtatious that was catnip to men and aspirational for women. The indicator of how attractive she was is that in photos, and especially video, she always outshines any actress they can find to play her.

On top of her natural advantages, she also had a virtually unlimited wardrobe, hair and makeup travelling with her, and the second-best jewellery on the planet (after the Queen).

Exactly, R189. I never understand why people don’t find her to be beautiful. No, she wasn’t generic, “cookie cutter“ actress pretty, that’s boring and overdone. She was an aristocratic beauty, a true English beauty. I love faces that are interesting and bear the best of their ethnic phenotype. Add to that her height, build and dress sense, you couldn’t take your eyes off of her.

R2 173. Cute but frumpy. She grew into the HRH role and stole the spotlight from 'real' stars and the BRF.

Diana was ridiculously photogenic even before she morphed into the sleek, glamourous creature who bore little resemblance to the full-faced Sloane Ranger looking up through her eyelashes.

Even those early pap photos captured her wide eyes, beautiful skin, and long, graceful legs.

Sophia Loren wasn't "pretty", either. She has a large nose, small deep-set eyes, and a mouth too wide for her jawline. But, when you put it all together in front of a camera . . .

Funnily enough, a prominent nose makes all the difference. Same effect that made Streisand so striking in the 60s and 70s. It gives a dramatic, exotic, aristocratic look. The actress who portrayed Diana on The Crown had a little button nose, which is why she didn’t quite nail it for me.

R118 - I like Diana's hair longer too. Favorite phot is the one of her in the red dress holding a newborn Harry.

R107 Camilla was married in 73, charles maybe wanted to marry her, but his mother didnt agree. Camilla was too old and her reputation was awful. So while he waas in love in camilla during 70s he cheated on her too , he was in love in Kanga Tryon.

Did Camilla sleep around a lot? Why was her reputation so bad?

She wasn’t a virgin, r196, and this was apparently known to everyone. I believe she took his virginity. Her soon to be husband was sleeping with Anne. Her grandmother was his grandfather’s mistress. This stuff was still important to the Royals in the early 70s.

Not being a virgin = "bad reputation?" What decade were they living in?

They made Diana undergo a gynecological exam to confirm her virginity, in 1981, if that answers your question.

R199 It was to confirm she would have no trouble bearing children. She didn’t have to be a virgin. Charles proposed to Anna Wallace and she most definitely was not a virgin.

Diana underwent an exam before the marriage not to determine her virginity, but to eliminate any known fertility issues. Jesus. Even the Windsors weren't that hidebound by then.

And Camilla didn't take Charles' virginity, Lucia Santa Cruz did. She was expressly tasked with introducing him safely to the bedroom. It was well before Charles got involved with Camilla.

Camilla wasn't willing to wait for Charles, she was over 25, and she was legitimately infatuated with Parker-Bowles, allegedly one of the great fucks of his generation of aristos.

Charles is younger than Camilla by a couple of years and wanted to wait till he was at least thirty. It was the 1970s and socialites waiting till their early thirties to have children was a Thing yet to occur.

The timing was wrong for them, that's all it was.

Charles wasn't a virgin when he got involved with Camilla, although it is likely he met his sexual soulmate in her (so to speak), and Diana's virginity wasn't being confirmed, it was her fertility, which at the time was critically important.

Lady Di hair style.

Early Princess of Wales hairstyle.

Later Diana hairstyle.

Can the picture troll give it a rest? It's one thing to post a picture with a comment or some additional information, but I think we're all capable of an image search on the most photographed woman in history.

charles is 1 year younger than camilla.

Charles dithered when it came to proposing to Camilla. There were a lot of newspaper articles about her “past”, ie boyfriends who might sell their story to the tabloids and that was something the BRF wanted to avoid. Also Charles was in the Navy and liable to be away for long periods of time (this sunk Fergie’s marriage to Andrew). Charles wanted Camilla to wait for him and she said, screw that.

Diana famously “did not have a past” although she was casually dating some other guy when she met Charles again.

She was just a whore in later life.

R202 when she first came on the scene, Diana had the Elizabeth McGovern look popular among young girls at the time.

r120 but Kate has a terrible shape. Like I've never seen a woman that's all shoulders before but that's Kate. No butt, no hips, no titis, nothing but shoulders. Most dresses don't look right on her. If the 1980s shoulder pads come back into style she will be the Queen of the pack.

Now that I think about it, if Wendy Williams didn't get her breast implants she and Kate would have the same body type. And that's on period.

R210 - Kate also has a long waist and short legs.

Meghan does not seem to have waist but that may be do to pregnancy.

r211 I don't know how we got onto the topic of Meghan but both women are not ideally built. Diana had a better body than both of them. I didn't notice Kate's short legs but I can now see it via a google search. The Middletons get way too much praise for their beauty. Kate had a lovely face but her body is nothing special besides being fit, I'll give her those props. The whole Pippa butt thing was such a joke. There was nothing there but the Brits when gaga over a missing ass. One of the great mysteries of the 2010s.

R212 - IMPO, neither Duchess (Catherine or Meghan) can wear clothes the way Diana clothes.

Diana could pretty much pull-off any garment and still look regal.

R203 - I think she was pregnant in that photo? Good Lord: those eyes, the skin, the white teeth (so rare amongst Euro royals of the previous generation), the burnished hair like spun gold before it got all dried out and over-layered and over-blown out . . . no wonder the country idolised her.

Kate dresses fashionably, but she's clearly not as obsessed with fashion as Diana became. Really Diana was more of a humanitarian supermodel in her later years.

Now, in photos #2 and #4 of this series, I would say Diana did look rather plain. She had lost a bunch of weight but it didn’t look good. Her outfits were dowdy and her hair was lank. She wasn’t yet in possession of her powers. I think she eventually started getting her hair permed. She looks best in #3.

One of the few women who could wear a frosted, feathered haircut without looking like a frump.

R215, what Diana was obsessed with was being the centre of attention.

Kate dresses to look elegant but contemporary without upstaging more senior members of the family.

Meghan...should get a stylist and listen to them.

I can see why people fell in love with Lady Diana Spencer.

that is fake , right?

R216 - Cannot agree. Those photos are from that first Australian tour after William was born and I think she looked absolutely stunning. The clothes are not what we would call "stylish" today, but they were spot on for the young wife and mother and consort of the Prince of Wales - fresh, pretty as a picture, very English Rose. The crowds were unbelievable. In the photo you like, she's already had Harry and moved into the bearskin rug hair.

I don't know if you were around for that Australian tour, but I was, and the footage and photos were unbelievable: people were nearly hysterical, the crowds huge, the cheers and shouts deafening - nothing either the Queen, Kate and William, or Meghan and Harry are remotely possible of generating - never mind Charles and Camilla.

I don't think people who weren't around to absorb the news coming back from it have any idea how tremendous it was. The closest thing to it was Kate and Wililam's long tour of North America a couple of months after they were married - the reception they got was enthusiastic, but still not on the level seen at that Australian tour, or Diana's first tour of Wales when newly pregnant with William, after the wedding.

Rather plain? Those crowds saw only a beautiful young English Rose in the full flush of young motherhood in pretty colours. That kuscious pink and gold number she wore toward the end was gorgeous.

Plain, my arse.

^*luscious (not lukcious)

Diana glowed! Both her sons and their wives can't compare. She was one of a kind.

[quote][R203] - I think she was pregnant in that photo?

I’m not R203 but yes, that’s a maternity dress. It looked great on her.

R221 I was around. I just think she went through ONE subpar phase, in the year or two after the wedding, when she got too thin and pointy, which did nothing for her facial features. She REALLY got stunningly beautiful around the time Harry came along. I like the big hair.

I preferred the voluminous tent maternity dresses to today’s modern maternity spandex ensembles. I do not need to see anyone’s belly button through their clothes, pregnant or otherwise.

She falls far short of a million bucks in the looks dept.

She was magic. Ridiculously photogenic and absolutely gorgeous.

For me her appeal was that she was quite down to earth, she loves clubbing and dancing, and she seemed to be a bit of a fag hag. Also her taking the boys out at night to see and talk to down and outs. She gave those boys a real grounding, and her love for them was a joy to behold.

Diana just had a magic that might come maybe once a generation. I can only think of three others (that just happened to be of the same generation) with that type of magic: Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

R229 She was crazy. She was jealous of every nanny they liked.

R227 - I think we'd be interested in who qualifies (outside of legendary screen goddesses) for your million bucks in the looks department.

R231 - Yes, she was. But on some very strange level, I think her emotional issues were part of her unconscious charisma.

R225 - Well, we will have to agree to disagree on this. Those Kanga dresses and big hair days were her least attractive in my opinion. That photo is from the television interview with her, Charles, and the two boys around, wasn't it? I thought she looked dowdy.

R233 We share a meticulous interest anyway, even if seemingly opposed. I thought she was absolutely glowing and terribly sultry in that interview. Also quite articulate, something she wasn't given credit for.

R59 J Crew was making knockoffs of that dress a few years ago. My sister picked them as bridesmaid dresses and they were nicer than the big taffeta things at most weddings.

R227 - Looks are not everything. Lee Radziwill was better looking than Jackie Kennedy but Jackie had the magic.

Thoughts on this photocall?

Two Hundred-Thirty Something replies and no one's mentioned the strapless, black taffeta number she wore in 1981, to her first outing after Prince Charles proposed. The gown, the longer feathered hair; she was PERFECTION! The best she ever looked IMO.

Some aristocratic lady at the time, when she saw those photos of Diana in the black taffeta, remarked “isn’t that a dainty dish to set before a king.”

It was the junior version of the revenge dress, in more ways than one.

Here's an article about the black, taffeta gown at R238. It seems that Di caused an uproar with this gown because she wore black (unheard of at royal events when one wasn't in mourning) and the deep decolletage. Prince Charles even made a snide comment to her about the dress before the evening even began.

The ORIGINAL Princess Di look with the more voluminous hair & buxom figure was smashing!

I also LOVE Di's 1984 looks from around the time Prince Harry was born. Longer hair was more flattering on her than those damn buzz cuts that became her trademark. I think a lot of Di's (frequently excellent) fashion choices would have came off better with longer, softer hair dos.

"I watched you go down, just as I watched her years ago. Even in the same dress, you couldn't compare!

Diana had the best body, it was supermodel proportions with the long legs, broad shoulders, small waist....she was tall and voluptuous but small enough for couture all at the same time. Her face I always thought looked kind of normal, not unattractive, but very normal like the Southern country club women I saw growing up. They all had that big layered eighties hair, too.

R234 - Indeed, we do!

R242 - They aren't remotely the same gown. Diana's was a full on shiny ballgown much in the romantic 80s style of her wedding gown, puffy, and by the same designer, with a very low neck and a large taffeta ruffle.

Kate's was a regular evening gown, muted velvet rather than shiny taffeta, with a very modest lace edging on the far less revealing neckline. In fact, Kate looked stunning in this one with her glorious hair and slender, toned figure.

If she didn't compare to Diana - well, the hysteria Diana was generating even early on isn't something Kate wanted or courted. Diana, as we all (or most) agree, was a one-off.

Diana's dress was already evidence of her desire to be the centre of attention. In a way, she was already showing a bit of claw now she had the engagement ring on her finger (not unlike her younger son's daughter-in-law who, once she got the engagement ring on her finger, wore a $75,000 evening gown for a few engagement photos).

^*that is, her daughter-in-law by her younger son . . .

If looks could kill...

The most thunderous moods Diana ever exhibited publicly were in Korea toward the end of the marriage. If looks could have killed indeed. The stone face I’m posting here is one of many.

I think most you are missing a major point in how Princess Di looked, her make up, hair, and clothes choices etc.

Most people at that that time even Royals and super rich did not have an army of stylist, make up artists, hairdressers and personal shoppers. Dianna probably had a girlfriend or two who helped help her pick out her hair style or make up, and or her dresses. Today any upper middle-class women will have such things. Even my 86-year-old mother going to a New Years Eve party last year, had her and makeup professionally done for the big event, plus she had her gay son to use as her “stylist” ! She looked great.

This was not common in the 80’s, especially in the royal family who have dressed the same as they did 50 years ago. So my point is regrading her fashion sense, she was pretty much on her own.

Just imagine today with all the top fashion houses vying for celebrities to wear their clothes. If princess Diana was still alive today she would probably be on top of every major couture house in the world. And she would look fantastic and red carpet ready 24/7.

BTW, I worked as a professional stylist in the late 80’s and all are our clients where top fashion brands and photographers. We had just a tiny few private citizens and that was quite rare and only for top society events. Final word..the internet changed everything,

R249 - If I remember correctly, I think Diana got some advice from stylists at a British fashion magazine (maybe Vogue?).

R250 Yes, that was in the Tina Brown book.

Even at her worst she was incandescent . Like Marilyn Monroe ,the camera just loved her. You cant buy that,or fake it. You either have it or you dont.

That choker is just plain disgusting. All those strands of pearls layered up looks matronly. The dress isn’t all that sexy, either. Wasn’t tailored enough. Looks clunky.

R249 - Kevin Shanley was Diana's hairdresser for years and went on tour with her. She also had a dresser, and a cadre of designers, who helped her craft her look, for better or worse. Catherine Walker was one she was close to and from whom she got a great deal of style advice, and in the early days, her sister, Sarah, connected her to editors at VOGUE, who helped Diana as the newly engaged future Princess of Wales, shift the emphasis from the waist she didn't have to the legs she did have. She was advised there by Anna Harvey and Jacques Azagury. Harvey was a lifelong influence and more or less Diana's "stylist".

Those pearl chokers are oh, so eighties! There probably isn't an arista woman in England who doesn't have one. Camilla's is enormous, and Diana's is part of the Spencer family collection; she borrowed it from her sister, Jane, to use during her royal years, ditto the Spencer tiara, which the other Spencer women only wore at weddings.

But the chokers really have to be worn carefully or not at all. They go with very youthful necks and upswept hair and not with frills, flounces, and ruffles, or it gets beyond twee.

I'm grateful to Kate for NOT wearing them, but I do wish long pearls had not fallen out of royal fashion. What other gem can look so luxurious yet simple, and sensual yet classy?

That choker is too valuable to be truly unflattering.

The black taffetta dress caused an uproar because it flipped on its head the image Diana and the media had wordlessly confected between them. Until then it was all about a shy girl harassed by mean reporters and photographers, calls for Charles to offer her more protection, blah blah.

Suddenly it became clear that attention escalation was the actual project. The media played this logical conclusion down because it contradicted them. Inside the Palace, though, I'm sure Charles mocked the dress because he suddenly realized - probably for the first time - she was out to upstage him. Typically, Diana played "hurt, confused young girl" in response: but you step between that young girl and her key light just once and you're dead, buddy. She upstaged him ruthlessly for the rest of the marriage, when she was supposed to walk two steps behind him, the way the Duke of Ed always has with the Queen.

As we can see, that Meghan girl is a rank amateur beside Diana 1.0.

R254 True, but pre-engagement she was on her own. She picked out her engagement suit, that blue matronly suit, with only her mother for advice. At a certain point, she had lots of help but she always had a good eye for fashion and what looked good on her. The black strapless dress for their first outing together post-engagement was typical of Diana’s taste when on her own: somehow wrong since it showed too much cleavage especially when exiting the car, but also right in that she was radiant with happiness and it was, in her own words, “a grown-up dress”. Charles too was proud of her and before she exited the car, he gave the photographers a big grin and said, “Wait until you see what’s coming next.” It was only when she was engaging in bitter revisionist history years later did she claim Charles made a snide comment about the dress.

The blue engagement suit was perfectly fine for such an occasion in 1981.

C’mon, that blue engagement suit was like something Margaret Thatcher would wear.

The black strapless ball gown was a sensation because she went from Shy Di to va-va-voom and royals had never been voluptuous before.

R260 - Of course royals had been voluptuous before. The Queen herself is rather well endowed up top and in her salad days had a very nice hourglass shape and she filled out strapless ballgowns quite nicely. They were just careful not to fall out of their dresses.

Diana was looking for sophisticated and, as she put it, "black was the smartest thing you could wear". She wanted to make a splash, and she did. And, yes, it was only later that she went into revisionist history re Charles' reaction to the dress, just as she did about Charles' disgusted, "Oh, it's another boy and he's got rusty hair" when Harry was born. We have, of course, only Diana's word for these comments and as we all know, her relationship with inconvenient truths was somewhat tenuous.

I don't think Diana did know so well what looked good on her - she wore a good many howlers in her time and fell into the same trap that Meghan and many other women with square middles and not much waist do: trying to use belts and ruffles to give herself a more feminine outline, when in fact sharp tailoring and showing off her legs was the way to go. (Meghan, unfortunately, lacks the beautiful legs to make up for the lack of a waist.)

I'm sure the trip to Italy, with that gigantic pirate hat and ridiculous coat, as well as a couple of the gowns she wore (one Italian magazine called the one with the dropped waist akin to "two dwarves standing on each other's shoulders"). She also looked dreadful in fishtail gowns, which only look good on hourglass figures, yet she had several.

I saw many of those gowns at Christie's in New York City. You could see her evolution in the exhibition, from that silly red spaghetti strap sparkly full-skirted gown she wore to the Bond premiere to the stunning gown with the embroidered jacket top and scalloped chiffon split front panel she wore on one of her last engagements with Charles - you could see that if the material were any lighter it would have floated out of the glass case, and how it must have moved when she wore it.

So, no, she didn't always have an eye for what looked good on her.

Howler Exhibit A

Dancing Di at the White House.

Howler Exhibit B - the Drum Majorette Suit (and she wasn't young and silly here, either)

Here is a link to the catalogue of dresses offered at auction after the exhibtion.

Have at it!

R262 - I always rather liked "Howler Exhibit A".

R264 - "Howler Exhibit B" looks like something Kat would wear today only in black or green instead of white.

Charles' speech was meant to be funny but he was extremely jealous of Diana getting all of the attention.

Diana was quite radiant.

I think the 1983 Australia tour, with the huge crowds screaming for Diana, was something of a watershed moment for Charles, and difficult for him.

Another man might have shrugged it off, thought to himself, "Good job, takes the pressure off me!", realising that as time went on and she inexorably aged out of the radiant ingenue persona. it would all be to the monarchy's benefit.

But he didn't have that in them, and as the Tina Brown and Sally Bedell-Smith books made clear, the marriage was in trouble by the time they got back to Balmoral after the Mediterranean honeymoon.

I suspect the weeks at Balmoral after the excitement of the wedding and Mediterranean honeymoon were something of a watershed moment for Diana, as well. It was there and then that the reality of her royal life struck.

R269 She was probably running on nerves and adrenaline from the moment she realized Charles was interested in her. The comedown must have been brutal.

R263 all eyes on Di in a room filled with notable people

Dateline did a two-hour Diana special tonight. Nothing new.

Even while skiing on a cold day, Diana looked pretty good.

Charles should’ve married Camilla or an older woman who could accept that he loved someone else. I didn’t know Diana was so young when they got together.

R274 Well, he tried. He dated a lot between Camilla and Diana, but no one else wanted to marry him. The well-born women like Jane Wellesley weren’t interested. He needed to find someone who was suitable but also willing to put up with royal life ... someone who wanted it (or him) badly enough to overlook the negatives. That was Diana.

Four photos of Diana.

Diana had IT even when she was a mousy brown hair Lady.

Diana in b&w.

Neither son nor their wives have IT like Diana did in spades.

I think each of the wives has a little bit of her own “it.”

To elaborate on my last post. For all the talk about how Diana’s daughters in law don’t have her “it” factor, I think they actually do have something. I love how Kate looks here, she’s got a retro vibe, like...Marlo Thomas in “that girl” maybe? I can’t quite nail it.

kate looks terrible. Very old

R282 - Hi, Pet! How goes it? How did you think Meghan looked in Beverly Hills (isn't there a no travel outside one's area in force in L.A. and surrounding areas? Was there no place to shop closer than a two-hour drive to L.A.?) as she wore a furred barn jacket and woolly hat (ah those familiar hanks of coars hair peeking out!) and tall boots in . . . 80F weather?

Kate looks very sweet in that photo.

Don't we just assume the Klan Granny/Kate Hater troll is some sort of public relations intern? In any case, she belongs strictly on the "pay no mind" list.

R283 stop clowning. I didnt mean that last picture. I saw her recently and she looked awful.

"I think they actually do have something"

Well for starters, Kate's got that rock the size of the Ritz.

R285 - Really? Where? How close did you get?

The only times she's been out "recently" have been the train tour, the panto show (at night with photo lights blazing), and the night out in Norfolk where she ran into the Wessexes (also at night, even the paps couldn't get a good shot) - and most of those times she was wearing a mask.

So, do tell us where "recently" you got close enough to an unmasked Duchess of Cambridge to assess how she looked?

I thought this thread was Diana or did I click on the wrong place?

We’ve been debating Diana’s style as compared to that of each of her daughters-in-law.

This tunic worn in Saudi Arabia was always one of my favorites on Diana. I love the blue and the freeform floral pattern. I wonder where that tunic went? Probably most of the clothing went to the sisters.

R287 Are you some bot or something?

She looks awful

lol

She looks perfectly nice. She's an attractive late 30s matron. You said you " saw her" recently and "she looked awful". As opposed to, what, a film star?

She doesn't look "awful" except to someone who hates her.

You're the bot.

Kate does not have a face stuffed with fillers, this is weird looking. We are accustomed to seeing the faces of public figures pulled, stretched and injected.

R295 - You mean, like Meghan's looks now.

Yes, r296. Sadly, the covid vaccines fuck with the fillers.

[quote] the covid vaccines fuck with the fillers.

Whoa, that’ll be enough to make some vain folk refuse the jab.

Has anyone told Meghan?

I thought Diana looked wonderful while honeymooning at Balmoral. She was tanned and looked happy. It's hard to believe that she was sick at the time - physically and mentally.

I just had a revelation. I know who would be really good to play Diana in a biopic: Blake Lively. No I’m not kidding.

Very similar to what Di wore to meet Dodi

Oh dear. She’s too short for that gesture.

Great picture of Diana and William. They're so alike.

Ugh, hate when I post a photo link the signature line. Take two.

I wonder if William's resemblance to Diana, whilst Harry resembles his father and grandfather, except for the Spencer red hair, is one of the things that Harry has always hated William for? William gets the Duchy of Cornwall, the throne - i.e., his father's position but his mother's looks. Harry gets the scraggly red hair, the beady close-set eyes and Charles/Philip nose, no Duchies with monies attached, and increasing irrelevance as his brother's kids grow up and breed.

The Meghan Markle Revenge Dress.

[quote]she would have had fallings-out with her daughters-in-law.

I don't think so. Those are her adored boys. She would have wanted to get on well with their wives. In the case of Meghan, I think she would have taken particular delight in how much Meghan bothered the Royal Family.

Maybe Diana would have adored her DILs, but it would probably be a bumpy road. She was jealous of anyone who tried to steal her thunder. William and Harry would have had some blunt “knock it off mum” type conversations with her.

This thread was a lovely trip down memory lane with Princess Diana. The photographs Patrick Demarchelier took of her were always some of my favorites.

Her brief painfully-skinny period. The only time she looked bad, poor thing. The dress did her no favors. She said it was because of her troubles, but I always wondered if it was simply overzealous dieting at the time. I suspect a lot of people who suddenly get famous become unhealthily focused on how they look in photos and set out to lose weight. She did sort that out pretty quickly, though, and had an ideal figure for the rest of her life.

Probably this was posted somewhere on the thread, it's the dress she was wearing while engaged. She was emerging from a car and her breasts started to overflow her dress. It caused a sensation and she was more careful after that.

I was struck by this photo, then realized it was because we rarely if ever saw Diana’s forehead.

Bump. Rare pictures of Diana on a horse.

Diana was pretty when she finally grew into her glamor. She was very glam, eventually. She looks great in OP's picture. Like an aristocrat but contemporary.

I remember when Diana wore this dress. It was so shocking and funny.

I bet charles was so pissed off because all the attention from his dumb tv interview turned to Diana

The camera caught her in a perfect pose which such a flattering silhouette. She fortunately was neither skinny nor fat at this time. Everything just falls together. I even like her heavy makeup.

Any man, gay or straight, would be proud if his mother, sister or lover appeared looking like that.

She did have the perfect figure at that point, despite her eating disorder. Like R317 said, not too thin and not at all strained like she's starving and working out too much. I like Kate, but she does at times have that strained, trying-too-hard figure, which she loves to showcase in tight clothing.

Yes and the shoes are excellent.Correct height to be sexy because they elongated the line of the leg and shape the foot. But not whory. AND the photo captures her shoes and feet in a near perfect position. There is motion to the feet, well captured, and to her entire body. One shoe only makes half contact. It's a dancing effect. The option of the camera to her positing, erases all volume to the feet and she almost appears to be on ballet pointe. A very fortunate instant in time and movement and angle of camera to capture. The scarf lightly blowing out, Diana hand elevated about to reach out, her good posture here in the shoulders, her head high, her gaze up. She was well known for having none of that, often.

In a nutshell, the camera and the photographer contributed a lot. Along with thee dress designer, hair (brilliant) and makeup (contemporary, sexy for the times. Everyone did great work including Diana of course.

The woman has been dead for almost 24 years. Move on.