As Meghan Markle prepares to marry Prince Harry, her bridal gown designer will no doubt be going to extreme lengths to protect the secrecy of the much-anticipated wedding dress. Now, new details have emerged of how Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, kept her iconic dress design away from journalists. In a new ITV documentary Invitation To A Royal Wedding, which aired Sunday night, Diana's bridal gown designer Elizabeth Emanuel - who created the dress with her former husband David - revealed how they guarded the dress from prying eyes. The main strategy they used was being extra careful with scrap material for fear of it being stolen and reported on.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles on their wedding day
Elizabeth said: "I kept every scrap and we had to be very careful not to let any scraps fall on the floor because we didn’t want them to end up in the rubbish. We had a lot of journalists going through the rubbish to see what colour the dress was, so I kept them pretty much as they were on the cutting table. Every thread was important as far as I was concerned."
Princess Diana's bridal gown designer Elizabeth Emanuel
Diana's wedding gown was seen by over 700 million people worldwide and was made from exquisite silk, ivory, pure taffeta and antique lace. The train was a whopping 25 ft. long and boasted over 10,000 pearls and sequins.
The famous fashion designer also told the programme of her dismay at Diana's dress creasing on her journey to St Paul's Cathedral for the wedding ceremony. Elizabeth said: “We did know it would crease a bit but when I saw Diana arrive at St Pauls and we saw the creases I actually felt faint. I was horrified really because there was quite a lot of creasing there and she’s been in this little carriage with her father who's quite tall and she was all crunched in”.
Earlier in the year, Emanuel fans were thrilled at news that Elizabeth was to launch a new fashion line, aptly titled Emanuel Mayfair. She told People magazine: "We will concentrate on bridal wear and evening wear – things to get dressed up in, pieces that are handcrafted and made to order." The collection launched in February.