Spencer: Durran’s Costume Design Shines like a Tiara
Graphic by: Agnes Lee
When Academy Award-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran was tasked with recreating Princess Diana’s wardrobe in the 2021 film Spencer, she was challenged by Diana’s status as the most photographed celebrity of all time. The film, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Kristen Stewart, portrays Princess Diana’s mental health struggles while in the royal family and her subsequent decision to divorce Prince Charles.
When Stewart, a Chanel brand ambassador since 2013, was cast as Her Royal Highness, Chanel granted Durran access to all of the Chanel archives in order to accurately reimagine Diana’s iconic outfits. Chanel, a fashion house known for its royal aesthetic and enthusiasm towards tweed, gave Durran a plethora of options to choose from.
A side-by-side comparison of Kristen Stewart and Princess Diana wearing similar plaid blazers. Image credit of Elle Magazine.
Spencer captures a 1991 holiday weekend at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk as the Princess of Wales struggles with bulimia and self-harm induced by the claustrophobia of the royal family and her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles.
Larraín’s directing and Jonny Greenwood’s ambient jazz score work together to create a haunting portrayal of the late princess, illustrating the turmoil and psychological struggle she endured. Durran’s costume design emphasizes this.
At Christmas Day Mass in the film, Diana wears a red wool coat with gold button embellishments and a black blouse, accessorized with a black hat and birdcage veil. The structured shoulder pads in her coat are not only a nod to the fashion of the time period but also a symbol of the royal family’s rigid structure and Diana’s resulting confinement. The black birdcage veil shows the princess as a bird trapped in the cage of her familial obligations.
A behind the scenes shot of Stewart wearing Diana's Christmas Day Mass outfit. Image credit of Vogue.
Durran and Chanel recreated the princess’s wedding dress: an iconic ball gown with puffed sleeves. During a sequence in the film in which Diana’s life flashes before her eyes, she runs through the Sandringham estate wearing the gown. As one of the most famous ensembles in the world, the wedding dress was not simple to recreate. While most of the dress is an exact duplicate of the original gown, Durran added a dropped waist that was not originally in the gown (as seen below). Diana’s tiara was also recreated; she specifically chose her own family’s tiara to wear instead of borrowing any royal jewels.
Featuring the wedding gown in this dramatic sequence is symbolic of her transition away from childhood. In addition to shots wearing the wedding gown, this sequence features her younger self laughing and playing with friends, which contrasts crying over the innocence she lost.
Diana met Prince Charles when she was only 16 years old. He was 26. They were married on July 29, 1981, right after Diana had turned 20. Being married into the royal family stripped Diana of her privacy, naivety, and innocence; her wedding day is the epitome of this transition, so featuring the wedding gown in this montage only emphasizes Diana mourning her childhood self and the life that she lost.
A side by side comparison between Kristen Stewart and Princess Diana in the 1981 wedding dress. Image credit of news7g.com.
Some of the most tender scenes in the film showed Diana with her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. In their first scene together, Diana wears a red sweater paired with a houndstooth skirt, which are intentionally less structured than other outfits in the film. This choice shows that Diana’s moments with her sons are the only moments when she feels free to be herself.
Left: Stewart as Diana chatting with William and Harry. Image credit of Fashionista.
Right: The Princess of Wales wearing a similar outfit in 1990 dropping her sons off at school. Image credit of Pinterest.
Perhaps the film’s pièce de résistance is a recreation of a 1998 Spring Haute Couture Chanel dress. The gown is incredibly extravagant, and the 1,000 hours it took to create it are apparent in its intricate details. According to Vogue, Dressmakers spent over 700 hours on the gown’s embroidery alone. The dropped-waist design, the tulle flare and the crystal embellishments paired with the pearl necklace Charles gifts to Diana create the perfect backdrop for the plot’s emotional climax. Its movement and shimmer on screen is mesmerizing and juxtaposes against the emotional pressure and turmoil Diana is feeling, creating a sense of tension and suspense.
Though Spencer explores just three days of the princess’s life and her subsequent wardrobe, Durran’s impeccable costume design creates a beautiful yet haunting aesthetic, reminding the audience of the tortured life Diana lived being scrutinized by the media and controlled by the royal family. After all, this cinematic masterpiece reminds the viewer when it begins that Spencer is “a fable from a true tragedy.”