PRINCE William and Prince Harry have given permission for Diana’s wedding dress to go on display at Kensington Palace this summer, for the first time in more than 25 years.
Princess Diana’s show-stopping bridal gown will be accessible to the public in honour of what would have been her 60th birthday this year.
Royal fans will be able to see the stunning silk taffeta wedding dress up close in a temporary exhibition called Royal Style In The Making.
The dress will be on display in Diana’s former home from Thursday 3 June until January 2022.
The spectacular dress was valued at £151,000 last year and was created by David and Elizabeth Emanuel for Diana and Prince Charles’ wedding in 1981.
Its sequin-encrusted train stretched a whopping 25ft, making it the longest in royal history.
Speaking to HELLO! last year, David Emanuel of Diana: “You’ve got the most beautiful woman, inside and out. It’s not just the look and the frocks and the fashion. She genuinely was just sweet. She was very young.”
David revealed he had asked a jeweller to sew a tiny gold horseshoe into the dress for good luck.
He added: “We only told her on the wedding day. She didn’t know about the horseshoe for good luck, she was very touched. She was traditional.”
David and Elizabeth Emanuel were chosen when their business was booming and clients included Bianca Jagger and the Duchess of Kent.
They had no guidance from the palace or Diana, other than discretion was paramount.
The exhibition will coincide with what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday on July 1.
Earlier in April, it was reported the Duke of Cambridge, 39, and the Duke of Sussex, 36, had reunited to approve a statue of Princess Diana to be unveiled at Kensington Palace in the summer.
It is hoped the tribute statue can help repair the brothers, in the aftermath of Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey last month.
The upcoming exhibition will feature a number of never-before-seen items, including a rare surviving fabric piece from the 1937 coronation dress of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
Matthew Storey, exhibition curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said: “Our summer exhibition at Kensington Palace will shine a spotlight on some of the greatest talents of British design, whose work has been instrumental in shaping the visual identity of the royal family across the 20th century.
“While one of the highlights will undoubtedly be Diana, Princess of Wales’s show-stopping Emanuel-designed wedding dress – which goes on show at the palace for the first time in 25 years – we’ve got some real surprises up our sleeve for fashion fans.”
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