Princess Diana secretly requested a copy of her wedding dress

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The day is finally here: you can now see Princess Diana's wedding dress in person, as part of a new exhibition at Kensingon Palace.

The last time the dress was displayed at Princess Diana’s former home was in 1995, and it has been privately owned by her sons since 2014, when Prince Harry turned 30, as per her wishes.

It is undoubtedly one of the most famous dresses in the world, and made headlines for weeks after it was finally revealed on the day of the royal wedding on 29th July 1981.

The dress was of course designed by husband and wife duo David and Elizabeth Emanuel, and stood out thanks to its huge train, puff sleeves and bow details.

To mark the opening of the exhibition, Elizabeth spoke to Grazia and revealed one important fact we didn't know about: that the royal personally asked the designers to create a copy of her wedding dress to be exhibited at Madame Tussaud's.

Of course, royal fans will also know that a similar second wedding dress had been created for the big day, in case designs for the original one were leaked. It was very similar, though a more simpler version with a more pronounced V neckline.

She also revealed how life changing that original commission was, saying 'We knew that we would be creating something that would be an important part of history: we were dressing the future Queen. It was fabulous. It was like having the biggest catwalk in the world.'

The designer also revealed she plans to recreated the dress for her personal archives, and we don't blame her.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.