Designer Bruce Oldfield reveals how Princess Diana shunned him

Home Top

Who do you send to police a week-long festival of excess located hundreds of miles into the desert? Armed federal cops, volunteer 'Earth guardians' and dogs with goggles arrive at Burning Man
Houston gunman 'shot deputy 15 times' in gas station assassination that 'cop lives matter too' sheriff has linked to national anti-police rhetoric
Chained upside down and burned alive: ISIS forces four Iraqi Shia prisoners to watch flames inch toward them in latest horrific killing
BREAKING: State Department says 150 more Hillary Clinton emails have been 'upgraded' to classified status in the release scheduled for tonight
Shock poll in Iowa has Ben Carson tied with Donald Trump and the top four slots are ALL taken by political mavericks
How an obsession with healthy eating could be making you ILL: Rise in number of people suffering from potentially fatal condition 'orthorexia'
The Koran fragment that could shake Islam after carbon-dating suggests it is OLDER than the Prophet Muhammad
US military is developing 'Gremlin' drones to overwhelm enemy defenses and conduct missions too dangerous for manned aircraft
Obama is accused of 'constitutional over-reach and 'insulting all Ohioans' by ditching former President and renaming North America's highest peak from Mount McKinley to Denali
Rise of the bizarre 'cannabis vomiting syndrome': Heavy users suffer from severe nausea and pain that can only be relieved by bathing in hot water several times a day
There could be aliens beneath Pluto's crust: Dwarf planet's subsurface oceans have the potential to hold life
EXCLUSIVE - She was almost Mrs Tom Cruise: Norwegian beauty and ex-Scientologist claims Church leaders 'tricked' her into a 'screen test' and then grilled her about her sex life in search for star's mate
Women who want affairs are sending MILLIONS of messages on our site and tens of thousands of people have signed up in wake of scandal, claims Ashley Madison
Jessa Duggar's father-in-law writes scathing condemnation of Josh's Ashley Madison adultery
Tearful Hulk Hogan asks for forgiveness: Wrestling legend apologizes for N-word rant, insists he is not a racist and claims he was suicidal when he launched his tirade
Jessa and Jill Duggar speak out about being molested by their brother Josh saying child sexual abuse should not be 'taboo' and there should be more 'awareness'
$Miley Cyrus at the MTV video music awards\nflashes breast\n\n$ Miley Cyrus and MTV blasted by parents' group for 'blatant sexualization and celebration of drugs' at VMAs
They must be so proud: Miley Cyrus' family lend their support as the scantily-clad star hosts the most outrageous VMAs yet
Rebel Wilson comes under fire from Black Lives Matter movement during MTV VMAs after joking about the 'injustice' of police strippers
The Kardashians move into the White House: Hilarious memes take over Twitter as Kanye West announces he's running for President in 2020 during MTV VMAs
Could Kanye West actually become president? Expert says his wealth and high celebrity profile would help... but Donald Trump's got a better chance
Kim Kardashian for FLOTUS? Kanye West announces he will run for PRESIDENT in 2020 in his MTV VMAs acceptance speech (but he did admit to smoking a joint just before)
2,000-year-old Palmyra Temple of Bel is 'still standing' despite Isis attempt to blow it up as 'basic structure and columns are intact', experts says
Taliban admits for the first time that its former leader Mullah Omar died two years ago

The late Princess of Wales was a fan of Bruce Oldfield's in the Eighties
Designer - dubbed the Barnardo's Boy - struck up a friendship with Diana
Elegant black velour gown she wore in 1985 was auctioned off for £50,000
Oldfield says the princess dropped him when her life changed

101

View
comments

Bruce Oldfield will forever be known as the man who dressed Princess Diana in the Eighties, but he has spoken about how his royal connection was both a blessing and a curse.

The fashion designer - dubbed the Barnado's Boy for a childhood largely spent in care homes in Yorkshire - says his business was almost left in financial ruin after he was shunned by the late Princess of Wales.

Speaking to The Sunday Times he claims that people stopped buying from him when Diana's life moved in another direction and she stopped wearing his gowns.

Scroll down for video

Mutual affecton: The late Diana, Princess of Wales and Bruce Oldfield struck up a friendship in the early Eighties after they were both involved with the charity Barnardo's (Pictured above at Grosvenor House in 1985)

Oldfield grew up in children's homes in Ripon, Yorkshire. In his 20s, he tried teaching before a course at Central Saint Martins led him to fashion

It was through Barnado's that he first met Diana - who was president of the charity from 1984 to 1996 - and a friendship soon grew, with the princess regularly spotted at functions wearing Oldfield's couture designs.

Nearly three decades on, and 18 years to the day from Diana's death, Oldfield, 65, has been speaking out about his relationship with her.

He also expressed his disappointment after claiming the princess gave up her charity work as her life took a new direction.

The designer, who remains single, insists that 'Diana didn't make me', however it is thought that even now his rich Middle Eastern clients love the regal association.

When Diana famously wore a Bruce Oldfield black velvet evening gown for an official portrait by Lord Snowdon, and at the first night gala opening of Les Miserables at the Barbican centre in 1985, it raised his profile enormously.

The dress would later be auctioned off for charity, making around £50,000.

Oldfield explained how their friendship faltered when Diana, newly singly, took a step back from lavish events in the Nineties. He says she told him she'd always hated Ascot and as such would no longer need outfits.

A match made in heaven: For most of the eighties, Diana, pictured striding along with Oldfield at a Barnardo's event (with Prince Charles nearby) championed his clothes and would regularly choose to wear his gowns

Diana wore an Oldfield black velour evening gown to the opening of Les Miserables in London's West End in 1985 (left). The dress was sold in 2013 for over £50,000 (right)

Born to a Jamaican boxer father and a half-Irish mother, Oldfield lived in a variety of children's homes in Yorkshire as a child

Upwardly mobile: Oldfield, pictured with Diana and Joan Collins at the Grosvenor House Hotel, happily mingled with the rich and famous - and still does - despite his humble upbringing

Princess Diana wore a floaty Bruce Oldfield dress to a function in 1983 in New Brunswick, Canada

By the Nineties Oldfield says his friendship with Diana was waning. The pair are pictured here at a Barnardo's event in 1990

However Oldfield reveals that it was when Diana cut ties with Barnado's that he was hit hardest: 'We were shunned... We were p***** off, I can tell you. It wasn't good. It means everybody looks at you as if to say "You're rubbish, we're not going to buy from you any more".

By the time the recession had set in during the early 1990s, Oldfield had to sell his flat to secure a future for his business.

Storms weathered, his company is enjoying a healthy patch, providing beautiful gowns and couture wedding dresses for women worldwide, often for five-figure sums.

And he now has a new royal connection; he regularly dresses Camilla from his studio in Beauchamp Place in Knightsbridge and describes her as 'fabulous'.

Though he was never gifted a contract with the big Parisian fashion houses, like some of his peers were, he can count the Middletons and even Kim and Kourtney Kardashian as fans of his work.

Born in London to a half-Irish woman and a Jamaican boxer, he was pushed from pillar to post in children's homes around Ripon before he tried teaching in his 20s. Later a course at Central Saint Martins led him to a career in fashion.