From aristocrat to princess to her last love, Princess Diana’s life was chronicled in jewels. They tell her story from 16 when she met Prince Charles to 36 when she died. Two amazing decades of drama, of love, and of loss. Rome, city of popes and emperors. In 1996, Princess Diana and her sister Sarah paid a private visit.
As news of her arrival spread, the busy traffic of the Italian capital became a gridlock. The almost divorced wife of Prince Charles, Diana still retained her special allure. She had become an international celebrity. >> Once the future queen of Britain, Diana was now an independent woman. Her clothes and her jewelry marked the change in her status.
In her new life, the tiaras and ball gowns of her royal past were gone. Her only jewels with her Catherine Walker dress this night were a pair of diamond and pearl earrings. Venice, the serene republic. Diana made a private visit in 1995. Separated from Charles and free from royal constraints, her hemlines were shorter and her heels were higher.
A ruby and diamond necklace adorned this daring red dress by Azigori and pearl earrings completed the look for a princess who is now a semi- detached royal. In 1997, Diana attended a royal gala performance of Swan Lake wearing a necklace borrowed from royal jewelers garage. It contained diamonds and South Sea pearls.
Diana had hoped to own the necklace and a matching set of earrings which had yet to be made. 15 years earlier, the young pregnant Diana seen here at the Barbakin wore pearl and diamond earrings, a wedding gift from the Amir of Qatar. The queen had loaned Diana a glittering diamond necklace given to her by King Khaled of Saudi Arabia. Florence, the jewel of the Italian Renaissance.
Charles and Diana made an official visit during a tour of Italy in 1985. The princess was wearing a sparkling blue dress. On this occasion, she wore sapphire earrings, part of a fabulous wedding gift from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. In this visit to Venice during the same tour, Diana wore more sapphire earrings created from her Saudi jewels.
She thanked her Italian hosts in their own language. Now, could you translate? >> My husband and I are very happy to be here. >> Despite the smiles, Diana was ill at ease playing the beautiful wife. She was concealing an eating disorder and problems with her marriage. >> In 1995, Henry Kissinger greeted Diana in New York when he presented her with the humanitarian of the year award.
For this prestigious event, she chose the Amir of Qatar’s pearl and diamond earrings worn with a daringly low cut gown. She knew how to command the attention of everyone in the room. I want to say a sincere and heartfelt thank you for this award. Aged 19, Diana, then a kindergarten assistant, still wore her 16th birthday present from her family.
For her engagement ring, a selection of gems was taken to Buckingham Palace by the crown jewelers. Diana chose a large oval sapphire, her favorite gemstone, surrounded by diamonds. It cost 285,000. She chose a very traditional, very, very grand, very large, and very beautiful, but it was a very traditional engagement ring, the dark sapphire that was bordered with a with a frame of of diamonds.
Um, but this suited Diana’s stature. Also, you have to remember that she was the leader of the Sloan Rangers at the time, of this style tribe that uh that she came to represent. Uh, and the engagement ring was the the epitome of a Sloan piece of jewelry. Uh, and she wore it fantastically well. The ring had been made by Gards, the crown jewelers.
The showroom had a distinguished Cleonel. In the workroom, skilled craftsmen mount valuable precious stones in elaborate settings like Diana’s engagement ring. But Prince Charles was furious that the cost of her ring was made public after being featured on the pages of Gard’s Christmas catalog. You know, it’s always been a mystery to me why Charles, who after all dithered for a little time before he asked Diana to marry him, hadn’t sort of got in place a ring that he slipped on her finger as men are supposed to, to say, “Will you marry
me?” Instead, he had the man from Gar, the crown jeweler, bring down a tray of jewels to Windsor so that Diana could choose. So, as a result, this ring that she chose, which was so beautiful, had already been photographed for the for the Gard Christmas catalog. Diana borrowed a silver necklace and earrings for her first event as Charles’s fiance, a musical evening at the Goldsmith’s Hall, but her dress was cut too low and revealed too much cleavage.
Princess Grace of Monaco was more suitably attired. Carolyn Pride, one of Diana’s flatmates from her single days, helped her deal with press attention. She talked about how Diana coped with public scrutiny. I’m surprised again and admire her for the fact that she has not slipped down all the little troughs that have been put in front of her.
she has navigated very very carefully and very successfully and and I really admire her for that and that’s insight that’s nothing to do with is nothing to do with a sort of textbook job it really is her self-awareness and her intuition a very clever girl very astute lady I think a lot of people would like to ear mark her as a big dumb cluck but she’s not Lady Diana Spencer had come from an aristocratic family with its own stately homerop in Northampton Enter.
She had moved here with her sisters, brother, and divorced father in 1975. Diana was proud of her family history captured in the ancestral portraits at Ulup. In 1977, she showed off the picture gallery to Prince Charles, who was visiting the house. On their engagement day, Charles recalled what a very jolly, amusing, and attractive 16-year-old she was.
Great fun, bouncy, and full of life. >> Diana’s father, Earl Spencer, was a former Equiry to the Queen and had close connections to the royal family. >> Queen Mary was one of my godmothers. Prince of Wales, those days was one of my godfathers. And my mother was a lady in waiting. And now my daughter has married the Prince of Wales.
Diana was very like her grandmother Cynthia. Diana was born in 1961. Her family lived in a house on the Queen Sandringham estate. When her parents divorced, the family remained with their father. Diana’s upbringing made her independent. >> She’s taken it all in her stride. I think she’d always be like that. She’s very practical, Diana.
Very down to earth, very practical, very good housewife. And incidentally, when she was a baby, she was a superb physical specimen. She’d won any baby prize there was going. The glass coach taking Diana to her wedding and the world’s first glimpse of Diana the bride with her proud father. In St.
Paul’s Cathedral, her mother, Francis, wearing a pearl choker, almost a family trademark. Diana’s grandmother, Lady Fermoy, was wearing her choker. So too was Diana’s eldest sister, Sarah. And her other sister, Jane, was wearing hers. The bride wore the Spencer family tiara and her mother’s earrings. Diana had during the ceremony been wearing the Spencer family tiara, which is a wonderful piece.
And you know, I think in those circles, it would be normal for a great aristocratic family to marry their daughter wearing this um tiara, which is part of their heirloom. I Diana Francis >> I Diana Francis >> take thee Charles Philip Arthur take the Charles >> to my wed husband. When Charles and Diana left for their honeymoon, the bride was wearing the Spencer family six row pearl choker loaned by her sister Sarah, who’d worn it during the wedding ceremony.
>> Afterwards, I suppose they popped upstairs, as sisters do, and she put her necklace round Diana’s neck. >> Charles had already accepted a wedding gift of cufflings from his mistress, Mrs. Camila Parker BS. On their honeymoon, Diana wore her own threest strand pearl choker with turquoise. Princes and potentates showered the bride with gifts.
The most expensive was this wonderful suite of Burmese sapphires from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The suite included earrings, bracelet, watch, ring, and a large pendant. Diana had the set altered to make a necklace, a choker on a velvet band, interchangeable sets of earrings, and a headband. She was very fond of the sapphire and diamond suite that she received as a wedding gift from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
Um, and she really enjoyed wearing that. And I think that was very important for her. So as a young girl she had to suddenly take on this cloak of grandeur and splendor and um the jewels certainly helped her to do that and she wore them she wore them beautifully and she also brought something light and fresh and young to fine jewelry which we hadn’t seen in in in England for a very long time.> In 1996 Diana wore this 11 string pearl choker with the Saudi earrings dressed by Versace. She was a confident woman during a visit to the United States for a charity event. The Saudi jewels were among Diana’s favorites. On this occasion in Washington, she’s wearing the diamond and sapphire Saudi watch. Cardiff, 1981, and a nervous young princess of Wales wearing her Saudi sapphires is about to make her first speech to the people of Wales.
really great pleasure for me to come to Wales and to its capital Cardiff. I look forward to returning many times in the future. And also I’d like to just add how proud I am to be princess of such a wonderful place and the Welsh people who are very special to me. Thank you. A year later and now mother of Prince William, Diana attended a function at the Guild Hall London.
Her one-shoulder style dress by Bruce Oldfield emphasized her dramatic loss of weight. She was suffering from an eating disorder. She’s wearing a six strand pearl and diamond choker with matching diamond earrings loaned to her by the queen. Prince William’s birth in 1982 ensured the succession to the throne. Even at his christristening, Diana was less formal and more tactile than any royal mothers before her.
To celebrate William’s arrival, Charles gave her a diamond necklace with a love heart. She wore it the following year in Australia when the couple made a lengthy tour on behalf of the Queen. Diana insisted they took baby William with them. On arrival, she was wearing her favorite gold watch, which she’d worn since before her marriage.
Shortly after their engagement in 1981, Charles left his fiance behind for a pre-scheduled trip to Australia. Diana was seen crying at the airport. She suspected he was still in contact with Camila. In Australia, Charles played polo. Two years later, in 1983, he recalled that time in a speech. >> Ladies and gentlemen, the last time I was here was two years ago in 1981, shortly before uh we were married.
And at that time, everybody was saying, “Good luck and I hope everything goes well and how lucky you are to be engaged to such a lovely lady.” And my goodness, I was lucky enough to marry her. And we had many, many messages. It’s amazing what ladies do when your backs turn. With her Spencer tiara, Diana was wearing a diamond pendant bearing the Prince of Wales crest of three feathers, another wedding gift.
When Charles gave her a pair of emerald earrings, Diana adapted the necklace by adding an emerald drop to the pendant. Today, the same pendant is worn as a brooch by Camila, Duchess of Cornwall, Charles’s second wife. >> In New Zealand in 1983, Prince William performed a crawlabout to the amusement of his parents and the press.
>> On their first wedding anniversary, Charles gave Diana a charm bracelet with a koala bear. Each year he added a new charm. It >> was very charming at the beginning. Charles gave her a little koala bear as a memory of that. And you know these little things between husband and wife have always been or between mother and daughter have always been part of royal family jewels.
On the one side you’ve got these fabulous monumental pieces and on the other side you’ve got these very small personal things that I think probably they often hold much more dear. In 1984, Diana wore the bracelet shortly after the birth of Prince Harry. By then, it included a W for William and an H for Harry. >> Charms are so amulettic, so important for marking milestones in life.
But the charm bracelet was in a way cut off in its prime. Uh we perhaps should have noticed when the when the charm stopped arriving, when she stopped wearing it. The state opening of Parliament is a special event in the royal calendar. In 1984, Diana, wearing her Spencer tiara with her hair piled high, joined the Queen and Prince Charles for this very formal occasion.
She was criticized for upstaging the Queen, the star of this show. The queen is wearing the Hannavarian tiara dating back to King George IV in 1821. There’s no doubt that it right through the great long years of monarchy in every country, jewels have always been associated with it. It’s a sense of splendor.
You know, there’s a little saying in the royal family that, oh, we have to put on our best bits, do we? Meaning, it’s one of these state occasions when they put all the jewels on. But of course, everything has changed so much. You know, there’s been a lot of playing down of that elaboration. And certainly, if you look at the other European royal families now, you’ll see that they do get out the jewels for the state occasions, but not for their own private occasions, not when they have their own anniversaries.
Early on in her marriage, Diana learned quickly about the significance of jewels as symbols of monarchy. Had she become queen when Charles ascended to the throne, this is one of the tiaras she would probably have worn. Affectionately known in royal circles as Granny’s tiara, Queen Elizabeth inherited it from her grandmother, and she uses it constantly on official occasions.
It has nine large oriental pearls on diamond spikes set on a bando base of 27 brilliant diamonds enclosed in a metal band. >> Tiaras are a symbol of authority, the symbol of power. Um, that’s why when the queen’s wearing her crown, it it makes a fact. I am the queen. I am the head. And when a lady wears a hat, she must feel it must feel very important.
Or a gentleman wears a was top hat for instance, it’s it’s it’s a symbol of authority of of um class perhaps. >> In 1967, the queen wore a pearl and diamond tiara for a visit of King Fisel of Saudi Arabia. The queen loaned his present of a diamond necklace to Diana for the Wales tour of Australia in 1983. This was an important tour to bolster Commonwealth support.
Although too thin, Diana looked radiant in a frothy blue and silver Bruce Ol. The Queen’s diamond necklace emphasized Diana’s position as a senior royal. Wherever she went, she received a rapturous reception. She had become the jewel in the crown. Dancing with Charles, she was the center of attention, something that was just beginning to irritate her insecure husband.
Early in her marriage, Princess Diana transformed some royal emeralds into an eye-catching headband. The emeralds belong to Queen Mary, who left them to her granddaughter, the Queen. Known as the Cambridge Emeralds, their history is an intriguing one. Queen Mary’s mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, and her husband, Adulus, acquired them in Germany in a rather unusual way.
They went to Frankfurt on a tour and there was a um a lottery for for a charity and the Duchess of Cambridge decided that yes, she would buy some tickets and actually won and was presented with this brown box full of these emeralds. The Duchess of Cambridge gave the globular green cababashon gems to her son Frank who gave them to his mistress.
When he died suddenly, his sister Mary wasted no time in retrieving them. Queen Mary was very upset at the idea that these jewels which were supposedly part of the great heritage uh should not be in the family and she went out once she became queen she went out to get these jewels back. The Cambridge emeralds were part of that heritage.
I love the idea that just as we have squables in our families over some tiny little bracelet that granny promised to somebody, it’s just like that in the royal family on a slightly grander scale. >> In 1985, when they returned to Australia, Diana stole the show with the family heirloom spanning her forehead. She did this wonderful thing with the with the Cambridge Emeralds with a wonderful art deco choker which she put onto a onto a velvet band and fastened around her forehead to wear in in 1920s style like a bando. And I think that’s a
really enduring image of the of the princess in jewels. It showed that she didn’t take them too seriously. She obviously enjoyed she loved wearing jewelry and she wore them beautifully but there was a slight irreverence um which was so much part of her of her personal style. She loved to play around with them um and I think that had a huge impact on on fashion on jewelry wearing generally um throughout the 80s.
>> Among the jewels inherited by the queen from her grandmother Queen Mary is Grand Duchess Vladimir’s tiara. She escaped the Russian Revolution with her jewels. Queen Mary bought it in 1921. The Queen wore it to visit Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1980. Based on Grand Duchess Vladimir’s tiara, Queen Mary designed a stunning tiara, which the Queen gave to Diana as a wedding present known as the Lovers Not Tiara.
It was made in 1914 by Gards to Queen Mary’s own design. Diana wore it on various state occasions and many foreign tours. In 1989, Diana wore the lovers knot in Hong Kong with her white pearl encrusted Elvis Presley style dress and jacket by Katherine Walker. At the beginning, of course, Diana wore the lovers not tiara in quite conventional ways for conventional occasions, just when you would expect her to wear it and how you would expect her to wear it.
And then suddenly she appeared in Hong Kong in that magnificent Elvis pearl encrusted outfit with the lover’s knot tiara. And again, we saw Diana’s skill at just delivering the unexpected. Diana had another fabulous royal gem. A Sri Lankan sapphire the size of a duck’s egg set in a double row of diamonds. It was a gift from Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Diana wore it on her shoulder to a banquet at Hampton Court in 1982. Later, the brooch was changed to be the centerpiece of an elaborate choker. Seven strings of pearls held it in place. worn with sapphire earrings. This was a spectacular combination. >> Diana wasn’t really a brooch person. It didn’t go with those clothes during the 1980s, big shoulders, so on.
So, she turned this brooch into a necklace and had it strung on pearls and it almost became her trademark. And in a way, you could say it was a kind of meld of the two families. It was the Spencer trademark of the pearls with the uh beautiful blue sapphire, the big jewel coming from the royal family and she brought it together and made it her own.
As Diana developed her own style and her own life, um I think that she really understood how to wear her jewels to express her individuality and her personal style, but she she wore it with great flare and panache in unexpected ways on that on that evening that we all remember when she appeared at the Serpentine Gallery um in her short, devastatingly glamorous black dress that she wore to great effect with with the choker.
And you just wouldn’t quite expect to see quite a conventional style of a choker worn with that dress. And I think it made the most enormous statement saying, um, I am my own person. I, you know, I am part of the royal family, but I’m going to do my own thing. Charles and Diana visited the White House in November 1985.
The couple were guests of President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy. Diana wore the sapphire choker with a midnight blue velvet gown designed by Victor Edelstein. President Reagan recalled the evening in an interview. >> We had uh invited for that particular dinner at the White House uh a group of people who uh themselves were stars in whatever their activity was very prominent, well-known people.
I’d had an opportunity at dinner to uh hear of what she thought about some of particularly the performing stars that were there. So the dancing began but yet uh she was the center of attention. The the rest of the people were pretty much of an audience. So I managed to get word to John Travolta. she had uh mentioned approvingly during during dinner to ask her to dance.
He did and uh they danced beautifully together and it was a it was a kind of high spot that I do remember in that entire evening. >> A year later in 1986, the royal couple made a tour of the Gulf States. In the male-dominated society of Saudi Arabia, even a princess was expected to take second place to her husband. King Fad was a great admirer of the British monarchy.
This was the man who had given Diana the wonderful sapphire and diamond suite as a wedding present. To meet the king in Riyad, Diana wore a long black and white Duchess gown by Elizabeth and David Emanuel tied at the hip with a large striped bow. The lover is not tiara signified her royal duty as an ambassador for Breitton.
However, she was painfully thin, hiding an eating disorder and her marriage was in severe difficulties. Diana, then just 25, had to keep up the appearance of a devoted royal wife. In Qatar, it was Charles who received jewels. He was awarded the Golden Qatar Order of Merit. The tour moved on to Oman, where the couple visited the Sultan in his palace.
His austere appearance suggested a man of traditional tastes. But here was a host who really knew how to please his guests. To Prince Charles, he gave a new £80,000 Aston Martin car. Diana received a suite of remarkable jewels. At first, Buckingham Palace denied they had received these extravagant gifts. Lavish presents though from wealthy rulers are not new to members of the royal family who are accustomed to receiving them.
In 1911, King George V and Queen Mary were crowned Emperor and Empress of India. And at the Delhi Derba, Queen Mary was showered with priceless jewels from the Indian Maharajas which still adorn members of the royal family today. There’s nothing really new about being swamped with jewels because the queen herself when she got married and remember she wasn’t queen at that point she also had an enormous amount of jewelry given to her and it’s always the case that people who have their own stock of jewelry can do it. It’s
different if we’re talking about a state gift because that has to be decided upon. But the coffers of the royal family were enormously enlarged in Queen Victoria’s era and reign because of the jewels from the Maharajas who like the Middle Eastern potentates today are entirely in control of the situation. Diana was delighted with her very valuable gift from the Sultan of Aman.
The style suggested the cresant moon symbol of Islamic faith, but the setting of the necklace, bracelet, and earrings was strikingly modern. The people who were most able to give jewels to Diana at that particular point were the Gulf states where they’ve got these absolute rulers. If they want to go and order jewels or give their own jewels or take something from their own treasury and give it to Princess Diana or anyone else, they are free to do so.
>> A year later, during a tour of Germany, Diana unveiled her priceless Omani jewels. She wore the velvet dress in which she danced at the White House. as Spencer Tiara was held in place by her upswept hair. With their marriage under strain, the royal couple were flying the flag for Britain. She wore her jewels to send the message out to Charles and to everyone who who saw her and to say how confident she was in her new life, how she felt in her own skin.
And she really used the power of jewels to make a statement about her her ideals, her beliefs, her values, and of course her personal style. >> Sydney, 1988. This is the third tour the Wales made to Australia. Charles wore a naval uniform and Diana chose a nautical look. She kept her neck bare and just wore pearl earrings. A flotilla of yachts commemorated Australia’s bsentinery.
The couple were doing their duty for Queen and Commonwealth. There were a few informal moments on this tour which disguised the rift in the couple’s private life. Diana seemed more relaxed in Australia than at home. There were amusing sights, too, when the Aussie beach guards put on a show for their royal spectator.
By now, Diana excelled in upstaging her husband, knowing the press would publicize her actions. Please give him a warm round of applause. The Saudi sapphires, so much admired in previous Australian visits, were worn once more to great effect. Dancing with Charles in Melbourne, Diana created a sensation with her hair worn up, her bare neck and low cut gown emphasized the magnificent Saudi gems.
Who would have guessed that this royal couple, seemingly in step with each other, lived almost separate lives? Out on her own, Diana responded to criticism of high spending by wearing the same gown several times. This one by Victor Edelstein, seen in Washington in 1990, was worn eight times in 2 years. Diana loved America where she felt at home.
In return, the Americans made her feel welcome. there she could escape the stuffiness of royal life and the constant attention of the British press. >> She had a sense of freedom I think as many people do who are harassed by the paparazzi in England and then when they escape it seems like a wonderful new deal.
I also think that America really embraced Diana, made her feel wonderful and it is a land of freedom, a land of no stuffiness and I’m sure that in some ways Diana liked that. In 1991, Diana made a solo tour of Pakistan. She had grown adept at sending out unspoken signals of loneliness. Knowing that earrings draw attention to the face, she chose her largest pair, the wedding gift from the Amir of Qatar.
She had worn the ornate diamond and pearl drop earrings many times. Diana owned another pair of pearl earrings, a wedding gift from the Spencer family jeweler, Collingwood. She wore these with her lovers not tiara and with the king fisel diamond necklace loaned by the queen. when she developed her own style, when she became much more confident, um she took to wearing bigger clip-on button earrings, which was a, you know, very different look, perhaps a little bit a little bit stronger, a little bit less romantic. Um, but she understood that
earrings can light up the face immediately, especially um together with a with a choker and a necklace. That was her hallmark. In 1993, after her separation from Charles, Diana attended an English national ballet performance at Her Majesty’s Theater in London. But Diana’s life, half in and half out of the royal family, was fraught with difficulties.
At this stage, she was trying to work out the delicate balance needed in her new life. She underlined her still royal status by wearing multistrands of pearls around her neck in a style reminiscent of Queen Alexandra herself a former Princess of Wales. >> What I think was very interesting was that she echoed the style of Princess Alexandra who was one of course the most elegant princess of Wales in in in our history.
Um and I think that was it was very beautiful. It was very elegant of her to do that. turned, of course, very very romantic. >> In the early ‘9s, Diana’s love for pearl chokers, inherited from the Spencer family, created a new fashion trend. >> She almost started single-handedly what I call the new romantic craze. And that pearl choker became a badge, a symbol of this of the new romantic look.
All her piec collars, the wonderful frills that she wore. Um, the pearls really played into that extremely extremely well. >> In 1995 at the National Gallery, Diana met the model Twiggy. She combined a set of simple pearl earrings with a choker with layers of tiny pearls worn high on the neck. >> The pearls set off her complexion.
I mean, she was such a beautiful girl with such wonderful glowing skin, and the pearls emphasized her her beauty. Um, they were quite shy and koi. And again, of course, they suited her as as she was at at the time. Um, and they just started, you know, they launched a million pearl chokers. They kicked off the most huge craze for pearl chokers.
In her private life with her sons, she was just a single mother. Her casual attire acquired no formal jewels. For her charity work, she often dressed like a businesswoman in a smart suit with minimal decoration. A regular part of Diana’s day involved shopping in Chelsea, the fashionable district of London.
One of her favorite stores was Butler and Wilson, a costume jewelry shop. We know that she was very fond of rumaging around um finding a fun piece of jewelry. She appeared in a tuxedo looking stunning wearing the Butler and Wilson uh serpent on her on her lapel. She even dared to wear uh a jeweled order, a star. She wore it right in the center.
Diana mingled easily with other shoppers who were unaware that a princess was shopping next to them. Very easy with the staff. Always had a great sense of humor and enjoyed shopping. So we have seen a lot of very famous people and they never they’re always a foot smaller or they’re not as beautiful as what you imagine.
With her she was the reverse. She was a foot taller than what you imagined. She w she actually glowed. So she had wonderful piercing blue eyes and she was extraordinary. So whenever she was wearing anything, it always enhanced it. She always bought very classic things too that she would that you would see her wearing all the time.
She bought little pair of earrings that were French glass earrings, black French glass earrings. She wore them all the time. They were £5. So it wasn’t intrinsic things. It was because it went she wore things cuz it actually fitted with what she was wearing. Another famous pair of earrings that she wore all the time were silver earrings, just a plain gold.
So she accessorized herself. She was so she would try things from the very simple to the very exciting things you a big star necklace or a wonderful star pinned on the back of her hair. She was so much part of the 80s style. And it was at that time that costume jewelry was really booming and she was a young girl. She loved the fun.
She loved the wit and whimsy of costume jewelry. And she really indulged and I think she had a bit of fun. you know, she liked to um to mix the very grand royal jewels with uh a piece of costume jewelry from Butler Wilson. Diamond earrings were clever fakes. Sapphires were false. These earrings were costume jewelry.
The shimmering gem was made of glass. The stones in this star were paste. This Diamonte lizard was inspired by Diana. She wore it on the lapel of an evening suit during a visit to Canada, but somehow it escaped Charles’s attention. Imitation pearl earrings, and gold ones were often worn. It was often hard to tell genuine gems from fun fakes.
The false jewels almost became a metaphor suggesting the double life Diana was leading behind the scenes. South Korea 1992, the last tour days before the Wales’s separation. The splendor of Diana’s jewels cannot disguise her troubled expression. But it was in Portugal in 1987 that the cracks in their marriage began to appear.
Bulimia had taken a grip of her and she and Charles were drifting apart. She later said, “Portugal was the last time we were close as man and wife.” >> In 1989, Charles and Diana made another golf tour in Abu Dhabi. They were treated to a day at the camel races. A novelty for Charles who enjoyed horse racing, but perhaps less so for Diana.
>> She struggled to hide her boredom with her husband as much as with the camels. While Charles carried on seeing Camila, Diana transferred her affections to a young cavalry officer, James Hwitt, who helped her to maintain an equilibrium in her life. He gave her a gift of emerald earrings, which were never seen in public.
On the night of Charles’s televised admission of adultery with Camila, Diana appeared at the Serpentine Gallery wearing a sensuous low cut short gown designed by Christina Strombolon, her giant sapphire pearl choker around her neck. >> And I think it made the most enormous statement saying, um, I am my own person.
I, you know, I am part of the royal family, but I’m going to do my own thing. at the Serpentine when Charles was admitting to his infidelity in the television program and Diana in that little black dress with the wonderful jewel on it was making a statement. She was saying, “Here I am. I am gorgeous and I’m my own woman and responding if you like to what Charles was doing, but she responded via the camera, not with words.
” In 1997, a few weeks before Diana’s death, Diana’s dresses from her royal past were auctioned for charity in New York, including her serpentine gallery dress. >> Prince William had persuaded his mother to get rid of her unwanted clothes. >> $65,000. Are you all done? Last time at $65,000 for you, sir. In 1995, Diana again wore her sapphire and pearl choker at a charity function in New York.
This time with a night dress style gown by avanguard designer Galliano. Britishborn Liz Tilberus befriended Diana, seen here in London during a TV interview before she became editor of the American fashion magazine Harper’s Bizaarre and moved to New York. It doesn’t matter. Diana was very fortunate in that she also had advice from some of the best fashion editors and some of the best magazine editors um not only in the UK but all around the world and she formed a very important personal relationship with with Liz Tilberus and I’m sure that
Liz Liz had great style and I’m sure that she steered Diana in those early days towards developing her own very strong very individual style. Diana was in New York to honor Liz who was fighting cancer. >> Was very close to her, very sadly that she did not survive. But Diana right to the end helped cancer charities.
Any time that Liz was very bravely and stalwartly putting together a charity, she involved Diana in it. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m immensely proud to be here in New York tonight with you all to be giving this award to a lady from my own country who is also a dear friend and whose talent and courage has been an inspiration to us all.
Ladies and gentlemen, Liz Tberus. Sadly, Liz died of cancer four years later. In June 1997, Diana attended a charity performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall, performed by the English National Ballet, a company she regularly supported. Her sparkling South Sea pearl and diamond necklace made by Gards, the Crown Jewelers, was loan to her for the evening.
Diana’s love of ballet goes back to her childhood when she wanted to be a ballerina but grew too tall. At the beginning of her royal life, she was patron of the London City Ballet and regularly attended their rehearsals. Many of the dancers were close to her in age and she enjoyed talking about the practicalities of dance routines.
The South Sea pearl and diamond necklace eventually had matching earrings which were made later, but Diana never wore them. The Swan Lake suite was eventually sold at auction to an American collector for over £300,000. Some of the proceeds went to charity. On her 36th birthday, Diana was at the Tate Gallery wearing the Cambridge Emeralds.
Shortly after she agreed to join Dodie Fiad in the south of France. On holiday, Diana fell for Dodie, the playboy son of her host Muhammad Alfiad. Dodie showered her with gifts of jewelry. He wanted to impress her on their last day aboard the luxury yacht Johnal. They left the yacht for Paris where they visited the Ritz Hotel owned by Dod’s father.
Diana was wearing gold earrings, a gold watch, a seed pearl bracelet with diamond encrusted ends, and a gold ring set with diamonds, all given to her by Dodie. They left the Ritz by a back exit, hoping to throw off waiting paparazzi. Their car driven at speed crashed in an underpass.
Dodie died instantly, Diana later in hospital. When Charles saw Diana’s body, he was upset that one earring was missing. It was found later embedded in the crashed Mercedes. It was to Kensington Palace that her coffin was taken. During her life, she had used her home in London from where she attended so many occasions as the people’s princess.
I think you’ve got to remember that when Diana appeared in public wearing those grand royal jewels, it was a it was an amazing vision and it was something that we hadn’t seen in England for a very long time. We hadn’t seen that kind of glamour and particularly we hadn’t seen the combination of such youth with such great and splendid jewelry.
She brought a a youth and a freshness to jewelry. >> Wherever she went, she brought a radiance into people’s lives. Her image will never be forgotten. >> She was radiant. She was quite an exceptional person. And you know, all the jewels in the world cannot make somebody shine if they do not shine themselves.
Diana was somebody who without the diamonds was also a shining light. And to me, she brought a lot to the royal family. and that I think we should think of her legacy as something very sweet and strong. >> Diana had stored her precious gems in a safe under the stairs at Kensington Palace. Each item was kept in a cushioned box and inside was a label in her handwriting.
The label for lovers not tiara said tiara given to me by the queen as a wedding present. This one said, “Engagement present given to me by Queen Elizabeth.” On her last birthday, Diana wore her emerald choker with emerald earrings bought by Charles for her 22nd birthday. William asked to keep her engagement ring, but Diana’s fabulous collection of jewelry has not been seen since her death.
And in 1993, Diana’s brother demanded the return of the Spencer tiara, saying it had been on loan. She wore it for the last time at a reception for the Malaysian royal family in November 1993. The Spencer Tiara is now in the Diana Museum at Ulrop along with the earrings her mother lent her for the wedding. Diana is buried on the estate.
When she died, the queen checked that all the royal jewels she had borrowed for her foreign visits were returned to Buckingham Palace. The royal jewels are stored in a 6 m high vault at the palace. Diana’s personal jewels have been kept for her sons. Muhammad Alied claims that Dodie planned to give her this engagement ring.
