A well-guarded secret that’s worth millions

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 10

A well-guarded secret that’s worth millions

Very tight security surrounds the gown that Lady Diana Spencer will wear for. her wedding on July 29. No drawings exist and the dress will 6e made in secret by experts who have all sworn a vow of silence.

By (

GILLIAN FRANKS,

Features International

A burly security man guards the entrance of the modest shopfront in London's Brook Street. Admittance is granted strictly by appointment and on proof, of identity.

Behind those doors are blueprints for, the year's most jealously-guarded fashion secret — the £5OOO bridal gown to be worn in St Paul’s Cathedral on July’ 29 by Lady Diana Spencer — and key to a £lm fortune. Masterminding the barrier of security are David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the nian-and-wife fashion team now creating what they are determined will be the wedding dress of the century. Says David Emanuel: “It is the biggest secret we will ever have to keep.” No one, he is determined, will get wind of the design and appearance of the dress before Lady Diana appears in it on her wedding day. Which is why no sketches of the dress yet exist. All preliminary drawings have been destroyed, and Elizabeth and David will not even risk reference material being stored in the privacy of their Knightsbridge home. A senior design teacher at the Royal College of Art . explained: “The Emanuels will probably use the fabrics of the dress to create several mock-ups on a dummy. They will cut the dress from that and not use drawings.” These secret mock-ups, it is said, are taken home each evening by the Emanuels. David and Elizabeth keep a small staff of five machinists and a secretary, and all are • sworn to secrecy. Friends say that Lady Diana has been involved in the elaborate smokescreen of

. security surrounding the dress. She is believed to have deliberately visited a number of other designers besides Emanuel - including the widely-tipped Zandra Rhodes and Maureen Baker, who was responsible for Princess Anne's wedding dress — to put the media off the scent. One person who is particularly eager to share the Emanuel secret is 31-year-old Brenda Ellis, head of an East End of London firm specialising in creating lower-priced copies of ultraexpensive wedding dresses. Throughout the St Paul's

ceremony an Ellis team of designer, pattern-maker, cutter, machinist, finisher and presser will be glued to a portable television set. Says Brenda Ellis: "Depending how complicated the dress is. we hope to have it on sale that afternoon. It will cost about £300." Another leading West End fashion designer told me: “Since the announcement, David and Elizabeth will not have been hunting personally for the fabrics they need, for the dress. They are far too well known. "It is therefore more than likely that they are using

materials already in royal collections, picked in consultation with the bride. "Then they won't have to worry about the possibility of details leaking out."

So the fashion world is having to be content with educated guesses about the dress.

Jud o : ng by past form, it is being predicted that Lady Diana will wear off-the-shoulder ruffles rather than the traditional demure neckline — and a huge, crinolinestyle skirt with an overskirt revealing flounce petticoats. It's no secret that at least Li million will be made from copies of the dress rushed out as soon as the wedding is over. Many ' manufacturers,

mainly from the Continent and the Far East, have already offered vast sums to anyone able to get advance information on the likely style of the dress. One major Hong Kong manufacturer said recently: “We have offered £50,000 for authentic information about Lady Diana’s wedding gown which would enable us to make copies before the wedding.” But he declined to say whether any such information had been forthcoming. Thousands of copies of the dress will be made in Japanese and other Far Eastern factories from photographs wired from London minutes after Lady Diana arrives at St Paul’s. Less than 24 hours later, copies of the dress will be on sale in stores throughout the world.

Says one designer: “That’s what happened with Princes Anne’s dress in 1973, and the interest will be even greater

this time. Lady Diana’s gown will be the most copied dress of the year." But Elizabeth and David Emanuel are determined that until July 29 the fashion world’s guesses about the dress will remain ... just guesses. All David will say is: "!’• will certainly be a romantic dress for a young, fresh, anc lovely Lady Diana.

“We will make her like v fairy princess.” ’ He hopes that is all the fashion world can expect to learn before Prince Charles's bride walks up the aisle of St Paul’s watched by a world audience estimated at over 500 million, on the last Wednesday of July.