The Diana The Legacy

As a new exhibition showcases the Princess of Wales’s wardrobe at Kensington Palace, Justine Picardie pays tribute to a royal style icon

- Justine Picardie

I NEVER KNEW DIANA, but like millions of others who lived through her era, I saw the arc of her rise to fame, and witnessed the collective convulsion of grief after her sudden death two decades ago. She and I were born within days of each other, and though our paths never crossed, I do know a few of those who were close to her; yet to me, she remains an elusive and enigmatic spirit. What is clear, however, as is evident in Patrick Demarchelier’s portraits of Diana published in US Harper’s BAZAAR both before and after her death, is that she was a great beauty. And she was also a beloved friend of then editor Liz Tilberis, who had first met the young princess in the mid-1980s.

At the time of their early encounters, Diana was deeply unhappy, suffering from the bulimia that had plagued her since her engagement to Prince Charles when she was just 19, and from the grief associated with a failing marriage. In her memorial tribute to the princess, Tilberis wrote in US BAZAAR: “As Diana was going through some of the worst moments of her life, I was also hitting mine. When I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1993, Diana became the most loyal and cheering of friends. In spite of her own troubles over her separation and divorce, and all of her thousands of commitments to others, she’d call me constantly.” This kindness and compassion was also manifest in Diana’s warm and open-hearted approach to the homeless, people with AIDS and those afflicted with diseases such as leprosy, which had pushed them beyond the margins of society. “How many of us even begin to show such generosity?” asked Tilberis. “Only now can we truly see how much she was on the side of the angels. A bright light has gone out of my life, and I feel the world has become a darker place without her.”