Diana daring debut dress

LONDON LONDON (AP) It was black and strapless, with a sassy sequined flounce at the bodice and a gloriously full, swishy skirt.

The dress was, Lady Diana Spencer thought, so grown-up, just right for her first official engagement after the announcement she was to marry Prince Charles.

But when photographs emerged of the then 19-year-old Diana emerging from a limousine at a March, 1981 charity event all creamy shoulders and ample decolletage there was a minor scandal over the revealing cut. According to Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the ball gown with her husband David, they didn't realize the furor the dress would cause.

"She just looked fantastic. At that time, she was curvy. Not fat in any way, but she had cleavage we love cleavage. And she looked great in this dress," Emanuel said in an interview Friday. "We in no way expected there to be such a reaction. And I think from that moment on, Diana became a fashion icon."

The dress had been missing for Trouwjurken 2013 years until David Emanuel recently discovered it in a plastic bag at his home. Along with other garments worn by Diana and designed by the Emanuels, it is to be auctioned off June 8 in a sale that includes the silk chiffon blouse chosen for the Princess of Wales' official engagement portrait by Lord Snowdon, and the calico prototype used to fit her famous ivory wedding gown.

Prince Charles reportedly didn't like the ballgown she wore to the charity event, because he thought black was for people in mourning. Diana thought it was tres chic, and anyway, she had nothing else to wear.

"She was unsophisticated at that point, and when I look at the wedding dress and the black ballgown I can see a young girl's dream of the ultimate party dress or romantic dress," said auctioneer Kerry Taylor, whose eponymous firm is handling the sale. "So there's an innocence about these early pieces.

"Later on she became very svelte, very sophisticated, very elegant," Taylor said. "But here we see just a very beautiful, innocent young girl, and the clothes reflect that."

For the editors of Britain's voracious press, the dress and the snaps of Diana in it would kick off a long love affair with the princess.

"Up until that point, they'd seen her as a floppy-haired puppy," said Christopher Wilson, a seasoned observer who has written extensively on the royals. "And that's the moment Fleet Street fell in love with her.

"It all stretches back to that one picture."

Taylor and Elizabeth Emanuel are hopeful the collection will go to a museum the black dress is expected to fetch Trouwjurk Lange Mouw between 30,000 and 50,000 pounds ($44,000 to $73,000) and the prototype of the wedding dress between 8,000 and 12,000 pounds ($12,000 to $17,000) but understand that Diana's legacy means there's a strong chance a private collector may snap up the garments.

Despite the reaction to her ballgown, Diana liked it enough to ask the Emanuels to take it in when it became too large for her, as she was constantly losing weight. In the months leading up to her wedding, Diana's waist dropped from 26 to 24 inches, and the Emanuels decided it would be easier to just make her a new, smaller version of the dress. Elizabeth Emanuel said she doesn't know what happened to the second version.

The collection up for sale includes sketches, notes, invoices one shows Diana's mother paid 1,000 guineas for the wedding party's dresses, which was the equivalent of 1,050 pounds and even the handbag that Elizabeth Emanuel carried to the wedding at St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981. It still has the smelling salts the designer brought along in case her famous client felt faint. (She didn't, Emanuel said, describing Diana as the epitome of calm.)

"Diana was just fantastic. From the moment we first met her, she was Sexy Trouwjurken just like a regular client. She was lovely, down-to-earth, very sweet, very calm, very friendly. She made a point of meeting everybody in the work room and she was just so easy to get on with," Emanuel said. "We had so much fun.".

Diana wedding dress in Sydney

On loan from vloer-length avondjurken the Spencer family's 500-year-old ancestral home Althorp Estate, Diana: A Celebration features more than 150 items that chronicle Diana's life from childhood through to her rocky royal years.

Her 1981 wedding gown, diamond tiara, veil and 7.5m train help form the exhibition's centrepiece Royal Wedding Gallery.

Fashion fans can see the Versace, Chanel, Dior and Lacroix dresses, suits and couture gowns Diana wore along with portraits of her ancestors, Spencer family jewels and other precious Althorp artifacts.

Family films from her childhood, photos, personal possessions and private letters offer a rare insight.

During the northern summer the exhibition resides at Althorp House, Northamptonshire, but in recent years has toured US, Canada and Japan in its "off season". This is its furthest trip and its first time in Australia.

Powerhouse curator Glynis Jones said the exhibit also Korte Avondjurken included material covering Diana's support for AIDs, charities, homeless people and landmine victims.

"Australians have long had a special affection for Diana, with fond memories of her boundless spirit and her extraordinary kindness and evotion to others," she said.

Ms Jones promised "a rare and intimate glimpse Korte Avondjurken into her world and the many roles for which she became known, from the young bride who captured our hearts, to the icon of fashion and style, and as a humanitarian campaigner".

Diana legacy to burden Kate Middleton

LONDON If you think it's hard for most brides to feel comfortable in a new family, put yourself in Kate Middleton's shoes: "granny" is Queen Elizabeth II, dad is the famously cranky Prince Charles and, hardest of all, she'll always be compared to the late Princess Di.

No one can measure up to the departed, and Middleton will be jousting with the memory of one of the best-known women of the 20th Century.

"That's a tough legacy to live up to, and I feel bad for the poor girl," said Elsie Andrews, a retired nurse, as she weighed up Middleton's future with her fiance Prince William.

She said Kate shouldn't be judged on a "Diana scale" but should be allowed to "make her own waves" and find her own way through the royal maze.

Still, Diana's imposing presence was unmistakable on the eventful day last month when Middleton and William, both 28, announced their engagement, largely because the prince chose to give his fiancee his mother's spectacular diamond-and-sapphire engagement ring.

William spoke movingly that day about using the ring as a way to give his late mother a role in the wedding, and Middleton talked publicly about Diana for the first time, calling her an inspiration.

Most engagement rings, of course, come with less baggage. Will the spectacular ring on Middleton's finger weigh her down, serving as a priceless reminder of the impossibly high expectations she faces as she eases into Diana's glass slippers by marrying an heir to the throne?

Will Middleton Korte Avondjurken carve out her own path in the royal drama or like Diana be crushed by the loneliness and pressure of being a real-life princess?

As Middleton seeks her place, she will find herself bumping into Diana's legend whichever way she turns.

Looking for glamor? Diana danced with John Travolta at the White House, palled around with Elton John, and spent some holidays off the French Riviera on luxury yachts while the paparazzi used ever longer lenses to try to catch her sunbathing.

Looking for style? Diana's outfits by the likes of Versace, Galliano, Dior, Trouwjurken Valentino and other iconic designers made her a fashion trailblazer whose impact was global. Part of her star power lay in the way her sad, haunted eyes were set off by some of the world's most spectacular jewels.

Looking for a charitable role? Diana broke the royal mold by embracing AIDS victims and helped shape government policy by walking through fields laced with land mines as part of her effort to get them banned. She was much more than a lady who lunched.

Middleton has stayed resolutely out of the limelight in recent weeks. When she does make her first public appearance since becoming engaged, the British public, and raftloads of commentators, will be gauging whether she has Diana's natural flair.

But Diana's image 13 years after her death is still a moving target. Some view her as a compassionate "queen of hearts" while others see her as little more than a tall fashion plate. Diana's train wreck of a marriage left her desperately unhappy and this is how some people remember her as a troubled, neurotic woman in need of help.

Intimidating? Just a little. Everything Diana did was front page.

"I think it's undoubtedly a burden for Kate," said Susan Lee, a columnist at the Liverpool Echo newspaper who has written extensively about the royals.

"Diana was the most photographed woman of the age. She transformed the House of Windsor, she changed the way we look at royalty, and she was very accessible, she spoke to ordinary people, and people felt they could speak to her. She made royalty human for the first time."

Middleton may reject Diana's way and choose a much more private course once she becomes a princess. If she is looking for marital harmony, she will have to look beyond Diana for inspiration.

Diana and Charles suffered the most public of marital breakdowns each confessing their infidelities and unhappiness to the press and the savvy, well-educated Middleton must know that the Windsors' vast wealth and public position tends to make marriage tougher, not easier.

"I am so glad that I am not in the situation that Kate is in," said Ashley Ellensberg, a 22-year-old London college student. "Kate has great potential as a princess, and she might grow to shine brighter than Diana did. I think Kate is exactly what we need right now. I think she will do just fine and will develop as a princess in her own way."

All of the pressures that a young bride faces will be magnified for Middleton, whose very choice of a wedding dress is fraught with political, social and financial implications. And Diana's ghostly presence will Korte Trouwjurk intensify the pressure.

"It is hard for any woman marrying into a family to live up to the legacy of the mother-in-law, or to even just be approved of by her," said Ann Buchanan, director of the University of Oxford Center for Research into Parenting and Children.

"But Kate is her own person and does not need to follow directly in Diana's footsteps. She has developed her own identity, which is quite different from that of Diana, and I think this will help her in the long run."

Buchanan said there are key differences between the two women that should work in Middleton's favor as she copes with the fishbowl that is royal life in the Internet age. She said Diana had a difficult childhood complicated by the divorce of her parents, while Middleton comes from a stable family environment.

In addition, she said, Diana was only 19 when she got engaged, much younger than Middleton is today, and Diana became a mother almost immediately, even as she coped with her new husband's ongoing affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. By contrast, Middleton has a more solid base as she joins "the firm," as the monarchy is sometimes called here.

"Kate is older, she has some idea of who she is," Buchanan said. "She has a university education which helps her problem solve; she has spent many years considering the possibility of marrying into royalty. The marriage is not an impulsive act. I suspect the royal family have learnt a lot from the past. And hopefully there is no 'Camilla' in William's life."