How Queen Diana would have ruled coronation fashion

“She might have gone for a bit of Alexander McQueen tailoring.”

Alexander McQueen is a favourite of Princess Catherine, who commissioned an ivory silk dress with embroidered rose, thistle and shamrock motifs from the label’s creative director Sarah Burton for the coronation. Catherine wore a McQueen dress by Burton for her 2011 wedding to Prince William and owns an array of blazers in a rainbow of colours by the label.

If rifling through the racks at Alexander McQueen, Brunsdon would expect Diana to be more adventurous than her daughter-in-law.

“Kate’s style is very studied. Her approach to royal dressing is in the tradition of the Queen Mother. She has dug into the royal tradition and mostly dresses like it’s 1940.”

Media personality, model and former Australian Women’s Weekly fashion editor Deborah Hutton also remembers Diana as a fashion rule-breaker.

“Diana broke the boundaries and refused to be hemmed in by what you should do according to all that royal etiquette,” Hutton says. “We remember it so powerfully because we were all a part of her incredible transformation from when she was seen as a daggy teenager, to her becoming a strong fashion presence.”

“She grabbed her life by the balls.”

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Hutton met Diana at the Sydney Opera House in 1988 when she hosted the Bicentennial Wool Collection alongside Michael Parkinson. The show featured designers such as Jean Muir, Bruce Oldfield, Versace, Claude Montana, Donna Karan, Kenzo, Missoni, Sonia Rykiel and Oscar de la Renta.

“She already had such presence and I think it would have evolved,” says Hutton, who was born in 1961, the same year as Diana. “As you get older you become more confident in your choices. I think that she would have been like Jackie O who found her uniform with chic, fitted jackets and suits.”

While Hutton expects that Diana would have leaned into colour, Brunsdon has a different vision, that defies Camilla and Catherine’s matching shades of white for the coronation.

“Diana’s suit definitely would have been black,” he says. “She would still be sending messages.”

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