YOU BEEN SNAP.BRIDE'S NEW'S*

Here’s comes the bride’s mother-in-law… will Kate always live in the shadow of style queen Diana?

By Miss FB Lyimo*

It’s not often that a bride is eclipsed by her mother-in-law. But when that mother-in-law is Princess Diana, it’s another matter.
And today, as Kate Middleton counts down the hours to her impending nuptials, she may not entirely welcome the news that Diana’s magnificent silk taffeta gown has topped a list of iconic wedding dresses worn by royal and celebrity brides.
The dress worn by Diana, designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, an impressive puff-ball creation with leg of mutton sleeves, 10,000 embroidered pearls and a 25ft cathedral train, was deemed the most iconic of our time.

Magnificent gown: Princess Diana's wedding dress is not, perhaps, a style of that would garner such approval if worn today, but in 1981 it that captured the hearts of the people

It is not, perhaps, a style of dress that would garner such approval if worn today, but in 1981 it captured the hearts of the people.
Diana’s dress even trumped the Queen’s own Norman Hartnell creation, worn for her 1947 marriage.

 

The other dresses making up the top 10 were those of Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, Duchess of York, Princess Grace of Monaco, Sophie Wessex, Victoria Beckham, Catherine Zeta Jones and Jackie Onassis.
But it was not only Diana’s wedding dress that won her style accolades.

Icon in her own right: Kate Middleton is already charming the public

The survey, commissioned by Yours magazine among its mostly 50s readers, named Diana the overall ultimate style icon of the last 70 years, streets ahead of nearest rivals Grace Kelly and Twiggy.
According to Valery McConnell, editor of Yours, it is not merely the dresses Diana wore that were the key to her style success.
It was the Princess’s personality and presence that made the public adore her, and in turn, fall in love with her clothes.

She said: 'Women loved Princess Diana. As the nation fell in love with her, so they fell in love with what she wore.

'She was vulnerable, yet always stylish and gorgeous. She wanted to connect with people – she reached out and touched them – and that’s why we cared about her and her clothes.'

'For our readers, a style icon has to have an emotional connection, not just be a clothes horse or a pretty face.'
'Diana wore her heart on her sleeve - everything she wore was charged with meaning, and no item more so than her wedding dress.'
'Diana's was the ultimate fairytale wedding but the ending was so sad. The dress resonates with the public - it is bound up in all that emotion.'
The designer behind the production of Kate’s dress has remained a secret, though reports suggest Sarah Burton, creative director of British label Alexander McQueen, has been chosen for the life-changing commission.
Burton was allegedly recommended to Buckingham Palace by Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, and in her position as the right-hand woman of tragic founder Lee McQueen, was involved in the design of Sarah Buys’ gown for her 2005 wedding to Tom Parker Bowles.
So does McConnell believe Kate will become a style icon in her own right?
Only if she captures the hearts and minds of the public in the way Diana managed so effortlessly, she says, something which McConnell hopes won't be the case.
'Diana was a one-off. You have to have so much going on to have it all - and I hope for Kate's sake she will avoid the drama and charisma that was so tied up in tragedy for Diana.
'I wish Kate a less charismatic, happier life.'