Pedro Larrain's 'Spencer' tells Princess Diana's story through fashion.

Everyone knows Princess Diana – or they think they do. The royal, who would have turned 61 this year, remains a subject of fascination among the public and creatives. Director Pablo Larrain's film Spencer, offers a fictionalised account of the princess, played by Kristen Stewart, at a turning point during the Queen’s annual Christmas holiday at Sandringham House in Norfolk. The pivotal three days from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day magnifies the many problems within Diana’s personal life. Under surveillance by the Windsors’ gaggle of courtiers, trapped in failing marriage, and told to “keep up appearances” while struggling with an eating disorder, she’s a princess far removed from fairy tales. 

Eager to please Diana turns up to the palace in traditional plaid

Larraín frames his film as a "A fable from a true tragedy." in the explainer that opens the film, investigating the monarchy's dark side without abandoning the fantasy and beauty that keeps 'the system' going. Diana’s life may be falling apart, but she looks the part of princess and is surrounded by luxury and servants at every turn. That contrast is part of what makes the film powerful.  Costume designer, Jacqueline Durran knew public image was integral to the task. But with a different slant.

“[Pablo] was very specific about the clothes from the beginning,” she says. “And there was the sense that he really wanted to build the clothes and the sets to create the story he was telling altogether.”

While the film takes place over the course of a few days, Diana’s dramatic character arc is illustrated through a wide range of costumes loosely inspired by the late princess’ wardrobe between 1988 and 1992, a pivotal period before the couple’s formal separation in December 1992. Durran says Larraín was deeply invested in making sure that the clothing was an integral part of the film, but didn't want to focus on a specific date.

“We wanted to create the aura of her without necessarily re-creating different looks,” Durran says. “In terms of accuracy, we wanted to reinterpret and change it slightly, and we didn’t want any costume to say a particular time or place or moment, because all the Diana fans would know its historical place card. We weren’t doing that; it’s not what the film’s about."

Durran looked through thousands of photos of the princess to find clothing that best embodied how Diana would have presented herself both publicly and privately during a time of immense personal turmoil.

The only 'palace' person Diana is comfortable with is her dresser, Maggie

“What I wanted to find was the logic behind her choices, and the key pieces you see her wear during that period. Certain elements repeat: colour-blocking, gold buttons, contrasting lapels, polar-necked sweaters, and high-waisted, slightly cropped jeans with flat pumps.” Figuring out Diana’s staples was crucial. “I had to establish a contrast between the formal and restrictive clothes she wears during her ‘official’ life and the way she dresses when she can be herself,” says Durran. “To tell this story, you had to see a real difference between those clothes.” 

Princess Diana lived her life in a goldfish bowl. As one of the most visible women of her time, Princess Diana’s fashion choices always captured the attention of the public. But recently, over two decades after Diana’s untimely death, an influx of nostalgia-fuelled fashion trends and multiple dramatisations of her story in pop culture have cemented her status as a true style icon.

Diana feeling suffocated wearing a resplendent Chanel gown the pearls Charles gave her and his mistress

The late princess, who spent half her life in the public eye as part of the royal family, was no stranger to the power of presentation—her royal wardrobe was as much about practicing fashion diplomacy as it was providing armour from the immense public scrutiny she faced. Fashion also allowed Diana to reclaim her narrative, especially in the later years of her life as she broke away from the constraints of the notoriously restrictive palace. You can track her evolution from the innocent and diminutive bride of Prince Charles—who she married at age 20 wearing her famous fairytale wedding dress—to the independent woman who wore a glamorous black velvet, off-the-shoulder mini “revenge dress”  on the day he publicly admitted to infidelity, through her striking clothing choices.

Early on we are presented with a scene which appears unimaginably glamorous; in preparation for a three-day holiday weekend, Diana's chambermaid, Maggie — who, later confesses her love for the princess — lays out an arsenal of garment bags on the couch. “Dinner” reads one, “Christmas Day” reads another. There is even one just for her departure from Sandringham Castle. This might seem like a moment of excessive packing, but for the late Princess Diana and the rest of House of Windsor, this is merely tradition.

Diana rebels in red and black

For Stewart’s Diana, however, suffocating under the rules of royal protocol, she wearily eyes the huge rack of clothing as another chokehold the palace has on her, another demonstration of how her life is not her own.

 Later, she breaks the rules, and defiantly wears a bright red coat (modelled after two real coats that Diana wore in real life) not intended for Christmas Eve services to church—a small taste of freedom.

Costume designer Jacqueline Durran seems to amp up the level of glitz in the princesses’ wardrobe in order to heighten the sense of tragedy surrounding the critical 1991 holiday weekend, at a time when Diana's marriage to Charles was at crisis point. Larrain presents Diana as a beautiful caged bird. Durran's clothing choices are fully in line with this narrative.

Before Christmas Eve dinner in the film, Diana says that she wants to wear a black gown instead of a sea-green satin dress because the former “better represents her mood.” Her chambermaid, however, advises her to choose the brighter color as a way to ensure that her lively spirit remains on full display. When Diana begins to stray from her scheduled outfits, everyone — including the help staff — accuses her of going mad. 

It would seem Durran’s choice to exaggerate Diana’s clothing in the film hints once again at the fact that clothing was perhaps the last terrain of autonomy that the princess had left.  In Spencer, as in real life, Diana’s clothing functions on a multi-faceted level. Her glamorous garments were about pageantry. But they were also about control, fantasy, and, most emotive of all, freedom.

The cultural impact of a transformative story like Diana's, especially one that can be viewed so easily, has been enormous in recent years. In fashion, she’s everywhere, from Virgil Abloh’s Diana-inspired Off-White collection to GQ posthumously crowning her the “King of Street Style” in 2019. She currently holds the spotlight in several TV, theatre and film adaptations of her story.

The yellow outfit

In the film, the costumes emerge almost as characters themselves—a conservative yellow dress reminiscent of one that Diana wore while on a royal tour conjures the ghosts of her past; an elaborate formal gown resplendent with beading and gold embellishment is a reminder of rigidity of royal life in the present; a pearl necklace gifted by Charles, a duplicate of which he’s given to his mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles, literally and figuratively chokes Diana in one of the film's most disturbing scenes; and a sporty bomber jacket and blue jeans serve as talismans for the hard-won liberation she emerges with at the end of the movie, foreshadowing her future decision to give up her royal title.

One of her more famous outfits, an often Instagrammed look referenced in the final scenes of Spencer, features Diana in a sweat suit set, tucking the sweatpants into a pair of tall boots, topping it with a dressy blazer and accessorising with a baseball cap. An ensemble that represents Diana’s penchant for high-low fashion in her later years, free of the royal family, the outfit is a measured expression of relatable glamour as “the People’s Princess.” It shows a definite forging of her own path, away from the shadow of the palace. In both the film and in real life, though the outfit is casual, the impact is clear: this was finally Diana’s story to tell.

Free at last in a baseball cap, shades and blazer