6 1GT Wednesday November 18 2020 | the times

fashion

Diana takes

us back to

the Eighties

Thanks to The Crown, I’ve fallen

for her Sloaney chic all over again,

says Charlie Gowans-Eglinton

R

oyals. They always

look very nice, but

they’re not usually

breaking new fashion

ground. They are

supposed to look

appropriate, polished,

elegant and timeless —

not buzzwords for the women being

papped at fashion shows, who prefer

to be avant-garde and of the moment.

Royals and the fashion set can

influence trends and sell product —

but never the two shall meet.

Until Princess Diana. She was the

exception, the single area of crossover

on the royal/fashion Venn diagram.

She could look appropriate, elegant

et al, but also sock you in the face with

a fashion curveball. One minute she

was diplomatically dressed in tartan in

the Scottish Highlands, the next she

was pairing cycling shorts with a

Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt.

And now, with Emma Corrin’s

portrayal of Diana in series four of

The Crown, Diana mania has set in

again. Here are the highlights.

Collar collecting

It starts small. You admire the

Duchess of Cambridge’s white silk

blouse with Peter Pan collar (Ghost —

find more blouse and dress options at

ghost.co.uk, or in the new Marks &

Spencer x Ghost collection launching

tomorrow, marksandspencer.com).

Within a fortnight your own collar

has escalated to Pierrot proportions

— thank goodness air-kissing is

now illegal because no one could

reach you.

Diana wore them all: huge Puritan

collars, sailor collars, jabots, scarf-ties

and pussy bows. The fashion set has

embraced the extreme, supersized end

of this trend, but any collar will do

— layer Arket’s white cotton blouse

(£59, arket.com) under knitwear and

dresses, or skip the layering altogether

with Ganni’s yellow floral organza

collar (£65, ganni.com).

The B&B

The blazer and baseball cap clash

certainly qualifies as smart/casual,

saying: I’m important enough to own

this blazer, and might need to do

something important later, but I’m

actually so important that no one

will say anything if I wear it with

jeans and cowboy boots and, the

pièce de résistance, a baseball cap,

which also serves to protect my eyes

from the flashing bulb of that

paparazzo’s cameras.

The B&B has recently been worn

by the models Hailey Bieber and Bella

and Gigi Hadid, but Diana’s dress-

code-defying combination was given

Or get an exact replica: two of Diana’s

most memorable — and controversial

— knits have been dusted off for 2020.

The American brand Rowing Blazers

(rowingblazers.com) has a waiting list

for already sold-out £250 reissues of

Warm & Wonderful (the maker of

Diana’s black sheep jumper) and Gyles

& George (the maker of Diana’s “I’m a

luxury... few can afford” sweatshirt).

Fash-letics

For most of us, the sweatshirt-over-

cycling-shorts look is one to be

attempted only when en route to the

gym — anywhere else, people will

assume you’re going through a bad

break-up. But for Princess Diana and

model types, this is actually quite a

good look.

Further proof that Diana could

turn anything into a trend can be

found in Gigi Hadid’s faithful

recreation of the princess’s black with

a yellow stripe shell suit, which Diana

wore on a visit to a military regiment

and Hadid jazzed up with a clutch bag

for an evening out.

So if anyone makes a snarky

comment the next time you wear

your tracksuit to the post office, you

can turn the other cheek, safe in the

knowledge that you’re bang up to date,

and channelling a princess and a

supermodel, thanks very much.

hi

the ultimate seal of fashion approval

last month when the uber-cool fashion

brand Celine showed high-fashion

B&Bs on its catwalk in Monaco.

It knits

Brightly coloured jumpers knitted

from a pattern by your granny might

have felt like the height of naffness as

a teenager, but they are now hot, hot,

hot (and not just because Gran always

used the thickest wool she could find).

Diana’s 1980s knitwear drawer has

inspired fashion types into Fair Isle

jumpers and crafty cardis — try the

chunky cream floral cardigan by

Lorna Ruby (£95, lornaruby.com).

Top: influencer Sarah

Lou Falk; Diana,

Princess of Wales in

1983. Above: Celine
      SS21; Diana in 1988

ANWAR HUSSEIN ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES;

TIM GRAHAM/GETTY IMAGES