Princess Diana Argued With Her Butler and One Designer Over Wanting to "Go Super Short on the Skirts"
The late royal was ready to push boundaries after her divorce from Prince Charles.
Princess Diana's "revenge dress" is perhaps the best-known of her post-Prince Charles outfits, but after her divorce was finalized in 1996, the late princess continued to push the limits in her royal wardrobe. Hemlines became shorter and bust lines became lower—and according to fashion designer Jacques Azagury, Diana wanted to wear outfits that were even sexier.
Speaking to Hello! magazine's "A Right Royal Podcast," Azagury—who attended a recent press preview in London for the biggest auction of Diana's fashion ever—said that he pushed back when the royal "wanted to go super short on the skirts."
"Paul Burrell, her butler, and myself would say that's as short as you can go," Azagury said, referencing the sparkly pale blue mini dress she wore to a June 1997 performance of "Swan Lake" in London. "Take the blue dress," he said. "She even wanted to go shorter than that on that dress. And we said, 'Well, look, there's not much dress at the top, there's not much dress at the bottom. You'll end up with nothing in between.'"
Princess Diana wore a short blue Jacques Azagury dress to a performance of "Swan Lake" in June 1997.
A sketch and piece of fabric from the "Swan Lake" dress will be auctioned off on June 26.
Diana is seen in a black Jacques Azagury gown on her 36th birthday.
Azagury shared that he created copies of the "Famous Five" dresses he designed for Diana, and recently sold them to the Diana Museum. The late princess wore the five designs between 1995 to 1997, showcasing her riskier style as a single woman.
"For me it was very important that the five dresses stayed together as a story," the designer told Hello! He added that "it was the time of the supermodels" and Diana "was part of that."
Sketches of the "Swan Lake" dress and her black 36th birthday dress—which she wore for the last birthday of her life—are going up for sale as part of the Julien's Auctions Diana's Style & a Royal Collection event on June 26. The designer said her birthday gown was "an even more glamorous version" of her blue ballet dress. Poignantly, it was the last evening gown she ever wore before her tragic car accident on August 31, 1997.
Azagury admits that nearly 30 years after Diana's death, he still gets emotional. "I sometimes, if I'm doing a lecture or something like that I have to stop, I get a little bit tearful."
