In a sparse post-pandemic atmosphere, we are craving more-is-good maximalism of 80s fashion, with the return of Princess Diana
Never to let individual style fade by the rules of what a princess should wear, Diana dresses for a skiing holiday in Klosters, Switzerland, in 1988, in a star jumper and print frame glares. Pic/Getty Images
It took four seasons for The Crown to become a full-on fashion affair. The Diana from our collective memory returns in the fourth, and just-dropped season, dressed as a "mad tree" teasing us—and Prince Charles—with hide-and-seek glances as she hops from pillar to vase in a gigantic hall at the Spencer countryside estate in Althorp. She and her feathered hair flick come to life most vividly in a later scene, when she wears a patterned sweater and lemon dungarees thrown over a floral blouse with pie-crust collar.
With each episode of the Netflix series, we fall in love a little bit more with her, and as the season and the decade (1990s) wraps up, Diana Spencer has turned wholly into the Princess of Wales, the stoic Lady Diana, holding back her tears as she poses for a Christmas family photo in a daring black halter dress. We are, in that instant, #TeamDiana from here on to eternity. Amy Roberts, costume designer for The Crown, told elle.com: "From this strange little creature in leaves [episode 1] to this woman looking so sexy and strong at the end. It just sums her up to me."
Princess of Wales at the launch of The Bike 89 Charity event in 1989 in London. Pic/Getty Images
The season perhaps also sums up Diana's early relationship with fashion: Sloane Ranger chic aka preppy styles featuring pie-crust collars, tweed blazers, pearls and patterned knitwear in bright-happy colours and prints like polka dots, floral and houndstooth, and the '80s shoulder pads, patchworked so lyrically. We end up, ironically, appreciating the modern take on the classic '80s, a decade that's usually second place to the phenomenal and stylish '70s. Fashion is one of the most universal forms of self-expression, and Diana used dance, self admittedly, but also clothes, to make a statement.
The '80s earned a terrible reputation among style gurus because of the tendency to wear every colour in the Pantone wheel, and of course, the infamy of the scrunchie, plastic hoops, teased peroxide big hair and sequins, a la Dynasty. But this sweet silliness also provides a template for freedom, to dabble in many things at once. Electric blue eyeshadow, anyone?
Model Rikee Chatterjee in a deconstructed saree by Nikhil Thampi, featuring structured power shoulders
'All my storyboards have at least one Diana reference photo'
Nikhil Thampi, Fashion designer
I was born in 1986, so my exposure to the eighties was via my mother; she wore crop tops and shirts with padded shoulders and high-waist jeans as a young woman. I wouldn't say my clothes are directly informed by the '80s, but I am inspired by the manner in which pop icons like Madonna experimented with gender binary by mixing women's clothing with stereotypical male things. It's also perhaps the last era associated with more-is-good. And after a sobering 2020, I'd be happy if maximalism were to make a comeback.
I spent Christmas holidays at our London home, and my mother would dress us up in oversized unicorn sweaters. I abhorred wearing them, but now those memories are my comfort blanket. Princess Diana was a major talking point since my mother was obsessed with her. I remember she broke down when she heard about her death. Diana combined the masculine and feminine elements of fashion beautifully, and despite her status, stuck to personal taste. She was a true rebel.
'Diana was the only fashionable yet relatable royal'
Eina Ahluwalia, Jewellery designer
I was a teen in the eighties, and I don't think I have worn as many colours or had as much fun with clothes as I did then. You didn't care whether it looked good or not, if you liked it, you wore it. I grew up in a middle-class family in Kolkata with a simple upbringing. I remember looking forward to the export surplus exposition that visited the city twice a year, which turned into a family shopping outing with my mother and sister Atikaa. I've spent some good hours rummaging through cartons of clothes to find stonewashed jeans, trousers in fuchsia and lime green crop tops. It was a high point of my year. We design gold jewellery now, but back then, I was into plastic hoops and bangles. All thanks to Madonna. The '80s was also a good time to flaunt my natural curls.
I have no memory of what the other royals wore at the time. Princess Diana was the only royal who was fashionable yet relatable, and clothes played a part, I think, in bringing her closer to people.
'Can imagine her wearing a ball gown, pearls and tiara with sneakers'
Shilpa Chavan. Pic/Keegan Crasto
Shilpa Chavan, Milliner
I was a teenager in 1984, and into fluorescent everything. Making your own clothes is coming back now, but I took tailoring classes and fashioned my clothes back then. It was easier and cheaper. I bought white and black T-shirts and painted them in bright colours, and made my own tie-dye knotted tees. Madonna and her style defined my '80s; I was into a lot of chunky bangles and leather bracelets, plastic geometric hoops, which I still have somewhere in my closet. And those floral shirts tucked inside acid-washed jeans to display my slim waist, and V-shaped leather belts.
I grew up in Shivaji Park and studied in a Convent school. In the evenings, a bunch of us girlfriends would frequent the neighbourhood gym—not to check out the boys—but to flaunt our Jane Fonda-inspired high-cut Lycra leotards, leg warmers and braided headbands. There was nothing like 'too much'.
Shilpa Chavan, who went to a convent school in Dadar, sported the Lady Di haircut as a student
There's something endearing, freeing and modern about Diana's personal style that never tires to inspire. She was a princess, yet her personal taste was peculiarly different from what she was required to flaunt. Which other princess then wore her hair short? I am specially drawn to her casual dressing; she never looked 'done up'. I can easily imagine her wearing a ball gown, pearls and tiara with sneakers. Oh yes, and I had the Princess Diana feathered haircut back when I was in school.
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