An insight into Kate and Diana's wedding dresses

1. HOW ROYALTY
IMPACTED
WEDDING
DRESSES
By Ella Brown

2. THE ROYAL FAMILY
The Royal family always has a strong influence on fashion trends
- especially with members such as Diana who 'captivated the
world's attention not only as a princess and a patron of charities,
but also as one of the globe's most celebrated style icons'
(source linked here).
With the recent marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton,
the public has become and more and more interested with the
fashion choices of those in the royal family.

3. PRINCESS DIANA’S WEDDING
Princess Diana and Prince Charles wedding was on the 29th July
1981 was noted to be ‘the wedding of the century’. It was at St
Paul’s Cathedral in London. Diana’s wedding was seen by a TV
audience of around 750 million viewers globally, the day was
made into a national holiday until their divorce in 1996.

4. THE DESIGNER - DAVID EMANUEL
Diana's dress was designed by David Emanuel who had dressed
two members of the royal family - Katharine Duchess of Kent and
Princess Michael of Kent. It was quickly consider to be one of the
most famous dresses in the world and was seen as a quite
dramatic style to create an impression and make sure it went
down in history.

5. THE DRESS
Diana's dress is described as 'an ivory
silk taffeta and antique lace gown with
a 25 foot train which was valued at
£9000 in 1981'.

6. THE DETAILS
Her dress was decorated with hand embroidery, sequins and 10,000
pearls.

7. WILLIAM AND KATE’S WEDDING
➤ Catherine Middleton and Prince William
got married on the 29th April 2011 at
Westminster Abbey. The occasion was
a public holiday and the general public
held street parties in honour of the
celebration - over 5000 were held
across the UK. In London, one million
people lined up between Westminster
Abbey and Buckingham Palace to see
Kate and William. The ceremony aired
on the TV and was viewed by 10s of
millions all over the world with 72 million
live stream views on Youtube. In the UK,
there was a total of 36.7 million watching
part of the coverage.

8. THE DESIGNER - SARAH BURTON
➤ Sarah Burton is the creative director of the luxury fashion
house Alexander McQueen who designed Kate’s wedding
dress. The designer of the dress was hidden until the actual
wedding and was only annoyed when Kate stepped out of her
wedding car.

9. THE DRESS
➤ Kate’s dress was of an ivory
colour with a satin bodice
which had added padded on
the hips which was an
indicator of the McQueen
design due to it being a
signature element of his
designs.

10. THE DRESS
➤ There were flower motifs cut from lace on the dress. The sleeves
were composed of hand cut chantilly lace. Kate’s dress had a
train of 2.7m which had a weight of a silk tulle underskirt to make
sure it flowed nicely with the dress.

11. THE VEIL
➤ Kate’s veil was created by
the Royal School of
Needlework and included
hand embroidered flowers
and 58 buttons of gazar an d
organza which was fastened
by rouleau loops.

12. THE TRAIN
➤ Kate’s train was a lot shorter
than Princess Diana’s - it
measured under 9ft compared to
Diana’s 25ft train. It had layers
of ivory silk noting with hand
embroidered flowers.

13. THE SHOES
➤ Kate’s shoes were also
designed by Sarah Burton
and were also an ivory
colour made of duchesse
satin with hand embroidered
lace.

14. THE ACCESSORIES
➤ Kate’s earrings were from
Robinson Pelham and were a
gift from her parents and they
comprised of diamond set
stylised oak leaves with a pear
shaped diamond set drop.
Kate’s tiara was made in 1936
for the Queen Mother by Cartier
and was considered the
‘something borrowed’ from the
queen.
Info reference
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/styl
e/celebrity-fashion/kate-
middleton-mcqueen-wedding-
dress-10448840