 |
This pink silk dress was ordered from Catherine Walker in 1991 for the Wales trip to Pakistan that year. (upper right). Diana could wilt in heat and humidity, and silk was a favorite fabric of Catherine Walker to help keep her comfortable while still looking fresh. Diana also wore it a year later during the Wales' tour to India, where she had hoped to meet Mother Theresa, whose work with the rejected poor Diana greatly admired. While Mother Teresa was not there (she was ill in Rome, Diana in fact stopped to meet her on the way back to England), Diana did visit her convent, her hospice for the indigent dying(upper left), and her home for abandoned babies. She also visited a leprosy hospital , another cause she had taken on. While the day was long and also the hottest of the year, neither Diana nor the dress ever faltered. However, not everyone appreciated the practical aspects of her wardrobe, as 'The Hindu' newspaper reported at the time - "Visiting Buckingham Palace media persons also felt Lady Diana had not lived up to her reputation of being one of the best dressed women in the world. ...Except for the banquet given by the President, Princess Diana did not wear any new creations during her three-day stay in New Delhi."
The dress proved its worth at home,too. With the addition of a Philip Sommerville hat, it was perfect for a hot July 1991 Buckingham Palace garden party (lower right). A few months later in September she appeared in it at a visit to a home for ex-service members in Richmond. In May of 1992 she wore it on her solo tour of Egypt, and later that July, on her thirty-first birthday, she wore it on a visit to the National Orthopedic Hospital in Stanmore, in her capacity as patron of ASPIRE (which funded research into and rehabilitation of spinal injuries)(lower left).
This was still in her wardrobe at Kensington Palace when she died, and was part of the Althorp exhibit of her clothing until it closed in 2014. |
 |
