Secrets of the Royal Dressmakers:The Memory DressAuthor Reveals What Goes Into Royals' Iconic Looks (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Berkley; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty

To mark the publication of her new novel,The Memory Dress, author Jade Beer is looking back at the behind-the-scenes drama and glamour of the real palace dressmakers.

Berkley

But the lives and work of the real dressmakers are just as fascinating as their fictionalized counterparts. Here, Beer shares with PEOPLE some of the stories she’s come across in her research and interviews.

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Catherine Walker and Princess Diana

Arguably the most famous and closest working relationship between a major British royal and her dressmaker. The late Walker was fiercely protective of the bond the two formed over 16 years together and hired a PR firm to keep her businessoutof the press. What started as a call from the Palace in 1981 asking her to make maternity dresses for the Princess — who was then pregnant with Prince William — saw Walker dress Diana for more than 20 foreign tours, designing some of her most iconic looks including the famous ‘Elvis’ dress.

Anwar Hussein/Getty

It was only after Walker’s breast cancer diagnosis that she allowed anyone else to fit Diana. She herself only measured the Princess three times over all those years.

Angela Kelly and Queen Elizabeth II

Personal assistant to the Queen until the monarch’s death, Kelly worked on the “dresser’s floor” at Buckingham Palace and oversaw her outfits for more than 300 engagements a year. She managed the “materials room” where archive fabrics are stored, tested for creasing and placed under fans to see how they react to a strong breeze.

She kept detailed “wardrobe diaries” of what the Queen had worn and to where to avoid repetition and would diplomatically brief guests on looks to avoid once the Queen’s outfits were decided.  She knew the Queen’s preferred sleeve length (three quarter or full length, never flared at the wrist), that she favored a two-inch heel, handbags with longer handles and that she wouldn’t wear a hat after 6 p.m.

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Jenny Packham and The Princess of Wales

Dressing Princess Kate, the future Queen of England, is very different from dressing Hollywood, when pieces are typically sourced from the vintage fashion archives or hot off the catwalk and unseen on another famous body. Not so with Kate, who orders from the current collections before dresses are made bespoke for her. Jenny’s insistence on keeping the entire creative process — including pattern cutting — in-house allows total discretion.

Her private Mayfair basement with its secluded garden beneath the main showroom is where the bridal collections are shown and is ideal for secret meetings. This may explain why Kate has frequently worn looks from Jenny’s wedding collection, most notably the Aspen and Wonder gowns.

Several months can pass between Kate ordering a dress and wearing it – even if it’s been seen on a high-profile celebrity. Wearing the appropriate outfit for a given occasion and time outranks any need to be seen in something first.

Princess Kate and Angelina Jolie in two versions of the same dress.LEFTERIS PITARAKIS/AFP via Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

LEFTERIS PITARAKIS/AFP via Getty; Kevin Winter/Getty

And keen fashion observers will have noted that the Goldfinger dress Princess Kate wore to the world premiere ofNo Time To Diein 2021 (and now in the 2023 bridal collection) was similar to the Bruce Oldfield dress Diana wore to the premiere ofA View to Killin 1985.

Stuart Parvin and Queen Elizabeth II

Parvin designed for the late Queen for over 20 years starting in 2000, when he made her a yellow wool shantung coat and matching shift dress, without ever seeing her measurements. She used a photograph of herself wearing the look as the image sent to members of the public on their wedding anniversaries. “She loved my signature crisp shoulder,” he tells Beer.

Making his first evening gown for the Queen was equally challenging. Parvin was given three weeks to design and make a dress that some designers would need six months to create. “They were missing an evening gown for a state banquet in Jamaica,” he says. The Palace had chosen the fabric, “a powder blue, cobweb embroidered lace, mounted onto silk crepe. It had an asymmetric chiffon drape that concealed the split that enabled her to walk easily. It was on every front page, everywhere around the world and ended up being a very worn dress.”

Bruce Oldfield and Princess Diana

“She wanted the glamour that we could give her. And she got it,” wrote Oldfield in his autobiography,Rootlesswho dressed Diana for 10 years, starting in 1982. Her fittings at Kensington Palace always had to happen when she wasn’t picking the children up from school. “Then she’d give us an hour and a half — long enough for three fittings, a coffee and a chat … She disliked pomposity and used to call me ‘oily Oldfield’ when I was being particularly ingratiating … however friendly she was, she never let down the regal front entirely.”

Princess Diana with three-month-old Harry.Alamy

Alamy

Oldfield made some of her key looks: the blue dress she wore to Prince Harry’s christening, the red and white suit to meet the Reagans at the White House and the red evening dress for the Birthright Ball in 1985.

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source: people.com