Almost three decades after her death, the influence of Diana of Wales continues to be present in fashion. her style transcended the 1990s and turned some of her favorite pieces into authentic references of luxury.
Her relationship with the big fashion houses was also shaped in a series of bags that today bear her name or are known for their bond with her. Some were officially baptized in her honor, while others acquired their denomination over time due to close association with the princess.
From the “Lady Dior” to the “Gucci Diana”, through designs by Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo and Lana Marks, these pieces tell different stories about the relationship between Diana and fashion. Next, a tour of the luxury bags that keep the princess’s legacy of style in place.
The Lady Dior? The bag (originally called the ‘Chouchou’) was a gift to Diana from the First Lady of France in 1995 before it was officially released. She later commissioned for a navy blue version of the bag as it ‘suited her well’. The bag was later renamed. pic.twitter.com/tpDdPtdG2S
The Lady Dior is one of the most closely related bags to Princess Diana. However, when it was created by Gianfranco Ferré, then artistic director of Christian Dior, the design carried another name: Chouchou, a French word that can be translated as “favorite” or “preferred”.
In September 1995, Bernadette Chirac, then First Lady of France, presented Diana a black copy during the opening of a Paul Cézanne exhibition in Paris. The princess began to take him on various public appearances, including an official visit to Argentina, and the images helped make him one of the most recognizable accessories of her style.
The close association between Diana and the bag led Dior to renamed it in 1996 as Lady Dior, in reference to the known nickname of the princess. The name change made the design a direct tribute to one of the most influential fashion figures of its time.
Since then, the Lady Dior has remained one of the fashion house’s most emblematic pieces and one of the clearest examples of how Diana’s influence transcended her own looks to be linked to the history of a luxury firm.
Yesterday, on the eve of Princess Diana’s 60th birthday, Gucci announced the new bag named Gucci Diana, in her honour. Princess Diana’s favourite bamboo handle tote has been reimagined by Alessandro Michele more than two decades after the original caught her eye! to ? pic.twitter.com/6pauwuVq9m
The Gucci Diana is a skin-type tote bag that stands out for its characteristic bamboo wings. The Italian house originally presented the design in 1991, although at that time it did not carry the name of the princess. His bond with Diana began to consolidate during the 1990s, when the princess frequently incorporated him into her looks for social events and protocol acts.
The mother of the princes William and Harry used to combine it with informal clothes, such as: wide sweaters, cyclist shorts, blazers and mocassins.
And although the public already identified the design with the princess, Gucci did not officially name it as Gucci Diana until 2021. That year, then creative director Alessandro Michele recovered the piece from the firm’s archives and presented it again as part of the iconic “Gucci Beloved” bag collection, this time with a name that directly recognized her relationship with Diana.
The renewed version retained the traditional bamboo asses, but incorporated leather strips in neon tones around them. In addition to providing a distinctive element to the design, these bands fulfill a practical function by helping to preserve the shape of the wings. Thus, a bag that Diana turned into part of her characteristic casual style, found a new stage within the catalog of the Italian house Gucci.
Princess Diana famously carried Chanel bags, to the extent that one specific vintage flap bag design was named the Chanel Diana bag in her honor. She was often photographed with it and other Chanel accessories during the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s. #PrincessDiana #PrincessDi #ChanelDianaBag
The Chanel Diana is a vintage version of Chanel’s classic wallpaper bag, recognizable by its rubber-shaped clutch, the “CC” logo closure and a chain interwoven with leather. The model was designed during the Karl Lagerfeld stage at the forefront of the brand and was produced approximately between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s.
Princess Diana began wearing it frequently during the 1990s, especially in a black version that appeared both on public appointments and at more informal moments. Her constant presence with the princess made the bag closely linked to her image and, with time, began to be identified in the fashion world as Chanel Diana or Diana Flap.
However, unlike the “Lady Dior” and the “Gucci Diana”, the name of this piece does not correspond to an official Chanel denomination created as a tribute to Diana. It is mainly a name used to identify the vintage model that reached a particular notoriety after the princess incorporated it into her wardrobe.
Chanel stopped producing the original model after a few years, although its aesthetics continued to inspire later models.In 2015, the fashion house presented a new version under the name Vintage Chic Flap.
The Diana Clutch by Salvatore Ferragamo is a handbag inspired by the night designs that Princess Diana used to wear during formal events. The piece was linked to the princess not only by her aesthetics, but also by the relationship sheined with the Italian house, whose designs she used on different occasions during the 1990s.
The friendship between Diana and Salvatore Ferragamo was another of the elements that led the firm to take it as a reference for this design. In 1990, the house named the clutch with its name, making it a piece associated with the princess’s elegance and style outside of its official commitments.
The model is often confused with the black bag that Diana wore during the funeral of Gianni Versace in 1997. However, these are different pieces. The clutch that accompanied the princess on that occasion became another of the memorable images of her wardrobe, while the Diana Clutch received its name years before as part of the relationship between the princess and Ferragamo.
The bond between Diana and the Italian firm was also reflected in other moments of her public life. In fact, the princess wore a discreet black clutch from Ferragamo during the night in which she used the famous “Vengeance Dress,” one of the most memorable looks in her style history.
One of Diana’s favourite bag designer Lana Marks #bag #bags #royalfamily #designer #beautiful #luxury #uk #london #fyp #foryou #foryoupage
The Lady Di Bag, also known as Princess Diana Handbag, was created by American designer Lana Marks especially for Princess Diana. Unlike other bags associated with the royal, this design did not become famous only because she wore it: it was born from a personal order from the princess herself, who was looking for an exclusive piece that would carry her seal.
The relationship between the two began in Washington, where Diana met Marks through Lucia Flecha de Lima, the wife of the then Brazilian ambassador to the United States. The princess was impressed by the designer’s bags and asked her to create a model designed for her. The design process began in 1995 and the piece came to Diana's hands about nine months later.
According to Lana Marks’ story, when the princess received the bag she made a comment on her particular silhouette: she described it as “high and thin, just like me,” an observation that the designer took as a sign that the design had met her expectations. The piece soon incorporated into Diana's wardrobe and became one of the accessories directly linked to her style.
The princess came to have several copies of the model in different colors and materials. According to Marks, Diana gathered around 15 bags from this collection, thus consolidating the link between the designer’s creation and one of the most recognizable figures of fashion of the 1990s.
These bags demonstrate that Princess Diana’s influence in fashion transcended her own looks: some pieces were renamed in her honor, others were associated with her image and some were created especially for her. Today, almost thirty years after his death, his name continues to be linked to designs that are part of the history of the great luxury brands.
