Princess Diana reveled in fashion in a way no royal had before. But her husband, Prince Charles, used his keen interest in designer clothes to publicly belittle her, according to a new book, HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style (HRH is short for "His Royal Highness": So Many Thoughts on Royal Style), which went on sale Tuesday.
“The attention Diana received was initially surprising to the royal family, and then a source of resentment,” Elizabeth Holmes, the post's author, told People magazine. “For Carlos, you can tell from his public comments, fashion is one of the things that he tried to use against him. He used Diana's interest in fashion to paint her as shallow or frivolous.”
“Knowing that and knowing that her clothes were used against her, it was really sad for me,” added Holmes, who spent more than 10 years as a business and fashion journalist for The Wall Street Journal, earning a large following on her Instagram account where she explores royal fashion.
After interviewing a number of fashion experts and designers, some of whom have worked closely with the royal family, Holmes expanded his analysis of the "power" of royal fashion to write his book, which contains no shortage of analyzes of the styles of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan Markle.
While Holmes revels in all things royal fashion, he claimed Diana of Wales's outfits are some of his favorites. The mother of princes Harry and William wasn't afraid to embrace trends, or to show her emotions through her clothes, Holmes explained. “What I came to really understand and appreciate was the way that she reveled in fashion and brought emotion into the equation,” Holmes said. “He had very different phases in his clothing and it related to the tumultuous personal life that he was experiencing,” he said.
Diana was just 20 when she married the 32-year-old Prince of Wales in 1981, after just six dates. From the beginning, their relationship was complicated. The young princess struggled to handle both the public scrutiny and her personal problems (she suffered from bulimia and depression). In 1991, the royal couple broke up. Three years later, Carlos admitted that he committed adultery during his marriage to Diana during a television interview. The future king then resumed the relationship with his then lover and current wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Their divorce was finalized in August 1996, and Diana, already dedicated to humanitarian causes during their separation, focused on her work. He died a year later, on August 31, 1997, when his car crashed in a tunnel in Paris. He was 36 years old.
Jealous for the attention his wife was generating and stealing the limelight, Carlos gave her a hard time in public.
During a royal event in 1989, Carlos insulted Diana in front of their royal hosts, according to Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles. An emir approached Diana to ask her what she had planned during her official visit - Diana was scheduled to visit a clinic for immigrant women and visit a center for children with mental disabilities - when Carlos vouched for her.
“Shopping, huh, honey?”, Carlos said, according to The Diana Chronicles. Holmes also quotes the scene. "Diana blushed, muttered something inaudible, and went silent," Diana's private secretary, Patrick Jephson, revealed in Brown's book.
“Deep down, I think she wanted Carlos' attention,” Holmes opined. “The most famous example is her revenge dress that she wore the night the documentary aired in which Carlos admitted he had been unfaithful.” .
Holmes said Diana could have responded to the public humiliation in a number of ways, including by staying home. But she didn't. “Instead, she chose a fantastic black dress and it just wowed,” the journalist explained, later adding: “The photos ended up coinciding with the news of her husband's affair. To insert herself into the narrative, to get her voice back without saying a word, she simply got out of the car in a fantastic dress. He knew how to use fashion to get attention.”
Some of Diana's most memorable styling moments came at the end of her marriage and the beginning of her new life, the author explains. “It was like in the middle of her divorce, and afterward, you can tell Diana started dressing the way she wanted. She knew what looked good on her body," Holmes told People.
A couple of months before her death, the princess emptied out part of her closet and auctioned off 79 of her most iconic dresses for charity.
Like her daughters-in-law, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, Holmes said, Diana knew when to dress more casually to get the most attention for the causes she cared about. “Some of the most iconic images are of Diana walking through a land mine, dressed in khakis and loafers. Fashion was not part of the equation at all. But that also has real power.”
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