Diana’s favourite designer reveals how the Princess sketched design for one of her most famous dresses worn for the 1981 State Opening of Parliament
- Fashion designer David Sassoon made more than 70 gowns for Princess Diana
- He has revealed that one of these dresses was partly designed by Diana in 1981
- She drew an initial sketch of her dress for the 1981 State Opening of Parliament
He was one of Princess Diana’s favourite designers, creating more than 70 of her gowns, including her wedding trousseau and her peach silk going-away outfit.
But David Sassoon, who ran the fashion label Belville Sassoon, has now revealed that one of the most famous dresses he created for Diana was not designed by him – but by the princess.
Mr Sassoon made the white gown that the princess teamed with the Queen Mary’s Lover Knot Tiara for the 1981 State Opening of Parliament, from one of Diana’s own sketches.
Speaking in a new Channel 5 documentary, Secrets of the Royal Wardrobe, screened tonight (Saturday), he said: ‘We were asked to design a very important dress for the State Opening of Parliament.
A drawing of the gown Princess Diana wore at the 1981 State Opening of Parliament, which was made by David Sassoon
‘Princess Diana sent us a sketch of what she thought the dress should look like. So we re-drew the dress and worked out practically how it was going to work. She then sent me a charming letter saying it was exactly what she wanted.’
‘Dear David,’ she wrote on September 17 that year. ‘How terribly clever of you to draw the exact thing I wanted! Could the back be the same pattern as the front?
‘Many thanks for redoing the sketch. Its (sic) going to look lovely I’m sure. Everyone up here went wild about the long white dress! Yours very sincerely Diana
‘It was the only time that she ever independently designed a dress that she would like us to have made,’ added Mr Sassoon.
‘It had a satin bodice, white organza embroidered with little silver trees dotted all over it on the actual puff sleeves.
‘I didn’t think it was one of the most successful dresses we have ever made for her. I don’t think she felt in the long run it was quite as good as it could have been. That was her one and only effort. She never designed a dress again.’
Diana leaving the 1981 State Opening of Parliament, where she wore the white dress she helped design
Mr Sassoon, 86, first met Diana when her mother, Frances Shand Kydd took her into the Belville Sassoon studio, in Knightsbridge, south west London, in the run-up to her wedding.
She had previously been into the shop, which he ran with Belinda Bellville, a few days before her engagement announcement but walked out again after the vendeuse suggested she might be more at home at Harrods.
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Diana wrote this letter to David Sassoon about the dress she would later wear at the 1981 opening
‘Her mother brought her into us to have a trousseau made,’ he said.
‘She had previously come in and there was a disaster with the vendeuse. She chose about ten dresses and her mother paid for them. I was thrilled she asked us to design her going-away outfit although I was disappointed we didn’t do her wedding dress.’
After the wedding Diana sent him a piece of wedding cake - he still has the box amongst a treasure trove of sketches and letters from her. But sadly he no longer has her sketch.
‘I stupidly threw her sketch away after I had redrawn it,’ he admitted. ‘At the time I suppose it was torn out of a notebook she had scribbled on.’
Secrets of the Royal Wardrobe is screened at 9pm tonight (Saturday) on Channel 5.
