Princess Diana in April 1985 wearing record-setting dress.Photo:Pool DE KEERLE/SOLA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Pool DE KEERLE/SOLA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Princess Diana’s style influence is all part of her legacy, says her designer pal.
Jacques Azagury, who designed the iconic ballerina-style dress thatsold for a record $1.15 millionin Hollywood on Sunday, said he’s certain Diana would approve.
Princess Diana.Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
On hearing the news of the hefty sale price (11 times the estimate!), the Moroccan-British designer said it brought back wonderful memories. “I was really excited and quite emotional actually as this was the first dress I ever made for her,” he said. “I’m just so happy that it’s still loved so much.”
It was Princess Diana’s stylist Anna Harvey who brought the royal along to see Azagury’s second “New Romantics” collection in London while he was still an up-and-coming designer on the scene.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles in April 1985.Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty
Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty
“I remember while I was talking to her, her eye kept going to a certain dress,” he recalls of the fateful moment. Three weeks later, Diana came to visit him at his studio, and it was the blue and black drop-waist design that she chose immediately.
“It wasn’t specially designed for her at all, although, of course, we made it for her proportions, but she didn’t care that someone else might have it, not at all,” he said.
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Jacques Azagury in Sept. 2013.Mike Marsland/WireImage
Mike Marsland/WireImage
The pair went on to work with each other for 12 years, right up until her fateful trip to Paris in 1997 from which she never returned. But that first dress was symbolic.
“It’s almost as valuable as an important piece of art really because it represents the time,” Azagury says. “That one dress speaks to so much of what was happening at the time; it was the ’80s, the big shoulders and it was also the start of the story of Diana.”
Princess Diana’s Jacques Azagury dress that sold for $1.1 million.Julien’s Auctions/Mega
Julien’s Auctions/Mega
“I think the Diana effect is as strong as ever, maybe stronger because of the mystique that will always surround Diana,” Azagury says. “People are still very hungry to know more about her, I don’t think this will change.”
Princess Diana’s Jacques Azagury dress that sold for $1.1 million.VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
“I think she would be delighted that there is still this amazing interest in the dresses that she wore and in herself too,” says the designer, who recently shut his Knightsbridge boutique, where he and Princess Diana would often meet. “Each of those dresses has a story, and they are all part of her story. They are very relevant in history.”
source: people.com
