Key Points
Throughout her royal life, Princess Diana’s favorite go-to designer was Catherine Walker, who first began designing for the Princess of Wales in 1981 while she was pregnant with Prince William—and made the dress Diana was buried in when she died in 1997.
Kate Middleton, as well as her mother Carole Middleton, have also found an affinity for Catherine Walker.
Multiple Catherine Walker pieces Diana wore are up for auction this month in one of the largest-ever sales of Diana’s collection.
Catherine Walker was Princess Diana’s favorite designer throughout her royal life, and multiple pieces from the brand are up for sale in one of the largest auctions of the late Princess of Wales’ collection.
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Princess Diana in Catherine Walker
While the sale—put on by Julien’s Auctions and called “Princess Diana’s Style & A Royal Collection”—doesn’t take place until June 26 at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, bidding is open now for the auction’s 300-plus items. Among them is a custom cream silk crepe embroidered Catherine Walker evening gown that Diana wore on a 1986 tour of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which is expected to net between $200,000 to $300,000. Perhaps the most notable feature of this particular gown is the embroidery of falcons with spread wings beginning at the left shoulder. While this dress was made for the Princess of Wales in 1986, the year after Diana died on August 31, 1997, Walker incorporated a similar look into her spring/summer 1998 ready-to-wear collection.
“The inspiration for this dress comes from a dress I designed for the Princess of Wales when she visited the Gulf States,” Walker later wrote in her memoir. “The embroidered motif at the time was a falcon, which we thought was an appropriate symbol.”
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Princess Diana in Catherine Walker
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Kate Middleton in Catherine Walker on November 21, 2023
Diana began wearing Walker’s creations in 1981, when she was pregnant with her first child, Prince William. William’s wife, Kate Middleton, now wears Catherine Walker—often as a tribute to her late mother-in-law—as does Kate’s mother, Carole Middleton, who poignantly wore Catherine Walker to William and Kate’s 2011 wedding, just as Diana likely would have had she been alive to see it.
Diana wore Catherine Walker from 1981—just months after marrying into the royal family—all the way to the end of her life. In fact, Diana is buried in a Catherine Walker dress, which Walker called “the saddest and most difficult commission of my life.”
Also included in the auction this month from Catherine Walker is a purple pencil skirt Diana wore in 1990; this piece is expected to fetch between $8,000 to $10,000. A two-piece cobalt blue dress and jacket ensemble is expected to bring in between $40,000 to $60,000, and a navy wool pinstripe double-breasted coatdress—which Diana was photographed in leaving New York City’s Carlyle Hotel on January 31, 1995—is expected to sell for somewhere between $30,000 to $50,000. That same year, Diana wore a black cocktail dress by Catherine Walker that is expected to sell at auction this month for $20,000 to $30,000; though she was photographed in the garment on September 27, 1994, it was used by the palace as Diana’s official photograph for 1995. Diana wore the piece again while on an official visit to Hong Kong that same year. Though Walker had designed for Diana just months after her marriage to Prince Charles, Walker was also there for Diana during the couple’s separation and eventual divorce. Walker wrote that after Charles and Diana’s split, “There was a new radiance about her, and when I look back at my working notes of the time, I’m reminded that we had talked about trying to capture that—how the designs should smile. Little by little, I saw her silhouette and her coloring change, and I was more enthralled than ever by the designs throughout this new image.”
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Princess Diana in Catherine Walker
Apart from clothes, there is a note from Walker to Diana’s assistant Helena Roach included in the collection, which is expected to pull in between $1,000 to $2,000. The note is about fabric choice for a skirt being made for the Princess of Wales: “Dear Helena,” it reads. “Please ask Her Royal Highness if she would like skirt in the same fabric as the pinstripe pantsuit. Thank you, Catherine.”
Of her penchant for pinstripes, Walker wrote in her memoir, “All my collections include pinstripe jackets or dresses. Everyone looks taller or slimmer wearing them, and I love playing with the wide variety available.”
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Kate Middleton in Catherine Walker on April 9, 2023
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Kate Middleton in Catherine Walker on April 24, 2014
Walker died in 2010, and wrote in her 1998 autobiography—released the year after Diana’s untimely death—that “Designing for the princess…was about beauty and dreams” (per People). Walker wrote that she was surprised in the early days of their partnership by “The Princess’s ease and modesty, and the fact that despite the guidance she was given, nothing could really be enough for the awesome situation she was faced with.”
Walker would even visit countries Diana was going to in advance to research, making sure the clothes paid respect to each destination. Walker’s widow Said Cyrus told People, “The relationship between the house and Diana was positive and professional. We saw our job as giving her the tools of her trade. She was always very polite, very courteous, and very appreciative. She was never late for an appointment, and whenever she wore a dress that was admired, she’d thank us.”
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Princess Diana in Catherine Walker on June 24, 1992
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Princess Diana in Catherine Walker on September 7, 1989
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Kate Middleton on June 6, 2019
The current Princess of Wales has commissioned Catherine Walker for hundreds of outfits over the years, many of which pay homage to Diana. While Cyrus won’t speak specifically about his relationship with Kate, he told People, “We always remember that it’s not actually the dress that’s the star—it’s the girl wearing it.”
Read the original article on InStyle