Diana's 'fairy dust' wedding veil was agonised over by secret embroiderer
When Princess Diana arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral to marry Charles - then Prince of Wales - people were stunned at the overall impression of her gown, coupled with the dramatic nature of her long train and veil.
Bringing together the grandiose best of eighties fashion and the timeless sense of fairytale romance, people had waited eagerly to see what the bride would be wearing for the occasion, which meant that the creation of the look had to be closely guarded secret.
One embroiderer took on the mammoth task of creating her 139 metre long tulle veil entirely solo, and had to go above and beyond to get it just right for the new royal, without giving away what she was working on.
The designers of Diana's once iconic wedding dress were Elizabeth and David Emanuel, a husband and wife duo who had even studied design together at the Royal College of Art - and while they were behind the overall creation of the ivory taffeta piece, there was one person without which the look would never have been the same: Peggy Umpleby.
Umpleby was tasked with embroidering Diana's historically long veil, completely on her own, and she wasn't even able to tell her colleagues about the gargantuan task she was completing. She worked at the company that had embroidered and embellished the Royal Family's clothes since 1767, Hand and Lock, which was known at the time as S. Lock, and was one the most senior embroiderers they had - per Vogue - having been honing her craft there for 35 years
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Diana's veil was adorned with 10000 tiny pearls (Getty Images)The task she was set wasn't an easy one, with Elizabeth Emanual later explaining: "I asked that the tiny mother-of-pearl sequins looked as if they were scattered on the tulle. As the sequins were almost transparent, only the sparkles of light would be visible, creating a fairy dust effect. We used the same sequins on the gown itself, so that it would also sparkle as Diana walked down the aisle."
Umpleby - reportedly called Miss Peggy by her coworkers - just had to go with her gut when embroidering the veil with 10,000 of these tiny pearls, as she wasn't provided with a pattern to follow, but she was given a specially made frame to work with the fine fabric on.
One of the in-house historians at Hand and Lock described her secret work process in the build-up to the wedding, "At first, Miss Peggy worked on the veil at home at night, sometimes working until five in the morning before bringing it back on the Tube. Progress was slow and to make the deadline she told fellow embroiderers she was going on holiday, but in truth, she sat at her kitchen table embroidering for two solid weeks.
"The veil was completed, sent to the Emanuels, and she returned to work, only to have her colleagues remark on how pale she was despite her two-week 'holiday.'" However, despite having to work on the project incognito, Umpleby more than pulled it off, with Elizabeth Emanual saying later, "Despite the enormous amount of work involved she remained calm throughout. We were confident she would interpret our vision perfectly and she did."
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