Princess Diana's Second Wedding Dress Revealed – And Wow, She Would've Looked So Different

Princess Diana's wedding gown, which is still regarded as one of the most iconic royal dresses ever, was created by designer Elizabeth Emanuel. With its elaborate hand-embellishments of 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequins and pearls, puffed sleeves, and a record-breaking 25-foot train, the stunning gown was the talk of the town (read world). However, as per Emanuel, before her lavish wedding to King Charles III on July 29, 1981, at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, she also worked on a secret second bridal gown as backup fearing break-ins and theft.

As reported by HELLO! magazine, Emanuel said, "The spare wedding gown was made just in case the secret of the real dress ever got out. Fortunately, it was never used. The dress was made in pale ivory silk taffeta with embroidered scalloped details on the hem and sleeves. Tiny pearls were sewn on the bodice." The alternate gown mirrored key elements of Diana’s iconic wedding dress, featuring a graceful V-neckline adorned with subtle ruffle trim, elegant three-quarter sleeves, and a voluminous princess-style skirt that screamed royalty. "People always ask you what it was like. It was similar in certain respects and both had the big skirt, but everything else was different," the designer added.

The gown, however, is lost today. "So it was really just a back-up to the original and I don't know where it went. It just disappeared," the designer admitted. Although carefully planned, it was never completed. Emanuel disclosed that the spare was moved to a sample rack and ignored after it became apparent Diana would wear the original gown. However, the story didn’t end there. 43 years later, the backup design was brought to life when Emanuel recreated it for display at the virtual Princess Diana Museum, offering fans a glimpse of what might have been, as reported by Us Weekly.

Given the overwhelming media frenzy surrounding Diana’s wedding look, Emanuel and her team at Brook Street in Mayfair went to extraordinary lengths to protect its secrecy. Each night, the iconic dress was locked away in a metal cabinet under the watchful eyes of two security guards, Jim and Bert, as reported by Cosmopolitan. The alternate wedding gown wasn’t the only hidden gem Emanuel crafted for the occasion. She also designed a beautiful pink dress for a pre-wedding ball at Buckingham Palace following Diana’s bold request for a very sexy dress to shock everyone.

In an interview, the designer later reflected on her relationship with Diana, describing how the late Princess directly contacted her to ask her to create the famous wedding dress. Their paths crossed again years later at an auction and it was the last time Emanuel saw Diana before her terrible car tragedy in Paris in August 1997.