The secret detail hidden in Princess Diana’s ‘cleavage bags’ has been revealed
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As we all know, the royal family has many style hacks to navigate all kinds of social situations, and their accessory of choice? The humble handbag.
The Queen uses hers to send signals to her staff, Kate Middleton always carries a clutch for this specific reason, while Princess Diana had a bag secret herself.
Her trick? Using clutch bags to hide her cleavage when exiting cars at evening events, so as to avoid any lurid shots making the tabloid covers the next day. This was such a signature move that the accessories became known as her 'cleavage bags'.
It's thought she used the move more often after leaving the royal family, as she wore more daring dresses, which tended to be more low cut in the evenings.
She usually chose satin Anya Hindmarch clutch bags for those events, and they went beautifully with the cocktail dresses she loved in the late 1990s, by the likes of Versace and Chanel.
In fact, she is said to have had such a close relationship with Anya, that the designer started embroidering the letter 'D' inside the clutches, as a sweet nod to their friendship.
This way, no one but the two confidantes knew about the little secret detail.
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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.
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