Why Princess Diana Had No Idea About Her Backup Wedding Dress

"It was a complete secret."

Princess Diana's wedding dress, with its 25-foot train and puff sleeves, will forever be an iconic piece of fashion history. But little did everyone know (Diana included) that she could have worn something completely different while walking up the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral to marry King Charles on July 29, 1981. 

According to People, Diana's wedding dress designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel had a second gown ready to go in case of an emergency. "I was a bit neurotic, and I thought, 'What happens if somebody breaks in and steals the dress or something spills or there's a fire or it gets stolen?’" Elizabeth said. "So I thought, 'I'm gonna make a backup dress.'"

She explained that Diana was kept in the dark about the second dress, adding: "Neither of us wanted to worry her. It was a complete secret."

The backup gown, however, wasn't an exact replica. Instead, it lacked the long train of the original design and featured "slimmer" sleeves, while its silk fabric was white "not the deep ivory that the royal wedding dress was made of."

Related: Princess Diana’s Wedding Dress Is Getting a “Sequel” From Its Original Designer

The dress, says Elizabeth, was never entirely finished. "I just thought, ‘If anything happens we’ll finish it off and have it ready,’ " she said, admitting that "it likely ended up on some sample rail. It probably got reused, torn up, thrown out, who knows? I call it the dress that never was."

Recently, Elizabeth reproduced the second, never-before-worn dress for the virtual Princess Diana Museum after studying old sketches and thumbnails from a documentary — and next up, she plans to create a modern reinterpretation of Princess Diana’s original wedding gown.

"I’m going to try and capture the spirit of the original — but through my eyes now," Elizabeth said. "I want to preserve all the sparkles and pearls but with a completely different vision."

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