The First Designer Dress I ever Designed!
29th July 1981 London United Kingdom
The world eagerly awaits the unveiling of the long-anticipated wedding gown of Lady Diana Spencer on the day of her wedding to Crown Prince Charles Philip Arthur George. Charles is the eldest son and heir apparent of the reigning Queen Elizabeth II (and now King).
Probably the world’s best kept fashion secret prior to the wedding, Di's wedding gown becomes its own entity. Myriad magazine articles and TV reports speculate on the "The Dress" and what will it look like. It was a fever of speculation and rumour surrounding what would become the most famous wedding gown of all time.
Probably the world’s best kept fashion secret prior to the wedding, Di's wedding gown becomes its own entity. Myriad magazine articles and TV reports speculate on the "The Dress" and what will it look like. It was a fever of speculation and rumour surrounding what would become the most famous wedding gown of all time.
Three weeks earlier in Sydney Australia
This fever of speculation reached Australia. In my year 5 class at O.L.D Primary School Chatswood we are given a homework brief. We have to design and illustrate what they thought Lady Diana Spencer’s wedding gown might look like.
Grades of A’s, B’s and indeed C’s often escaped my little 10-year-old world. I was not too fond of disciplinarians (the Sisters of No Mercy) and a bit of a dreamer. The truth was did I care too much for school but this homework got me excited.
Long before computers and the internet, I had relied on an Australian Women’s Weekly magazine that my Nan had. This was the research to base my portrayal/portrait of the future Princess of Wales on the big day with her big dress.
The Next Week
Bursting with pride we all rushed to proudly pin our works of art up on the enormous corkboard at the back of the room. Admittedly most of the drawings were what one expected when a wedding dress is drawn by a child.
\Ha! Don’t give up your day jobs Year 5.
At the tender age of 10 years old many of my classmates were not quite the visionaries of fashions future. Or were they?
Year 5 you can keep you’re A’s, B’s and C’s for your fancy Astronaut careers!
I’m still not sure where my Di wedding dress drawing came from. Amongst a wall of white gowns adorning fabulous and incredibly well executed stick figures, and this is my depiction of what I thought the Princess would, or should, wear:
My first "A" grade mark in a while was fully realised in that moment! I had drawn the Princess Di wedding dress with puffy sleeves and a big, big dress with acres of tulle. The flowers were a bit smaller than in real life though.
Back to where we started, the 29th July 1981 London United Kingdom
Two weeks later on the 29th July 1981 the big wedding day came around. My "A" grade drawing of the future Princess of Wales wedding gown turned into gasps of absolute disbelief. They had copied my vision!
Had Elizabeth and David Emanuel been nosing around Class 5B’s O.L.D Primary School Chatswood mega sized corkboard? Hmmm?
Where did their inspiration come from?
(If you want more information on the history and design of Di's fabulous wedding dress please check out this fantastic article by Juvy Ann Ignacio on the Fashion History Timeline website here.)
Moving Forward 17 years later to 1998 - London United Kingdom
Little did I know in Year 5 the intrinsic insight that this drawing would have into the future of this little Aussie 10-year-old girl.
My First Ever Business Card:
Yes, you read correctly I was a designer at Elizabeth Emanaul. The excitement around my first ever business card was phenomenal!
At 20 years old I had graduated from the prestigious Fashion Design Studio at The National Art School at East Sydney Technical Collage. This is now the National Art School. At 21 years old I moved to London with $1000 AUD in my pocket and some very big dreams to fulfil.
But that is another story for another time. Watch this space.
Em xx