.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
The People's Princess wore the baby-blue, diaphanous tulle Catherine Walker gown to the 1987 iteration of the festival, it's inspiration comes from another Royal: Princess Grace of Monaco in her days as an American actress.
Photo Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
It has been just over 34 years since a 26-year-old Diana, Princess of Wales, graced Cannes film festival's famous La Croisette red carpet alongside her husband, Prince Charles, and the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Cannes. Her choice of dress for the occasion has gone down in the annals of fashion history as one of her greatest: an icy, powder-blue, diaphanous tulle gown by her frequent collaborator, Catherine Walker, featuring a chic scarf that she tied behind her so that it flowed as a train. She accessorized with flat baby blue shoes, aquamarine and diamond chandelier earrings and matching bracelet.
Photo Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
As with all of Diana's looks, a lot of thought and preparation had gone into the moment. She worked with Walker on a design inspired by Grace Kelly's character Frances Stevens in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief. In the film, she wears a Grecian-look strapless chiffon gown by costume designer Edith Head, accessorizing with a matching scarf, which she wears draped over one shoulder.
It was an homage pregnant with meaning, with the actress of course going on to become royalty herself when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Diana and Grace had met in real life in 1981, with the Monégasque royal reportedly giving the newlywed advice on how to handle the pressures of the limelight. It was on this occasion that Diana - then still Lady Diana Spencer - made a fashion faux pas, wearing a low-cut, black gown by the Emanuels, which was not only considered too risqué but also inappropriate, as black is reserved for funerals only. A year later, in 1982, Princess Grace would die in a car accident in Monaco, a foreshadowing of Diana's own death 15 years later.
In 2011, the dress was put up for auction at LA-based Julien's Auction House as part of its Hollywood Legends Memorabilia sale, but it wasn't sold until 2013, when it raised £81,000, with the proceeds going to a children's charity.
Read the article at Tatler.
.png)
