An Appreciation of Princess Diana’s Over-the-Top ’80s Maternity Style
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In the early 1980s, two independent happenstances coincided. First, fashion became bold, big, and saturated with bright colors. And second, Princess Diana of Wales became pregnant, first with Prince William, and then, a few years later, with Prince Harry. The result? For 18 months, the most photographed woman in the world rocked some seriously unabashed maternity looks that live on in the historical archives for all perpetuity.
There were multiple and various shades of neon. Hefty doses of ruffles. A plethora of pussy bows—actually, every type of bow. Some serious, serious, shoulder pads. Name an ’80s telltale fashion trait, Diana wore it. Thanks to season four of The Crown, her maternity style, in all of its over-the-top glory, is now back in the pop culture spotlight. Sure, it’s good for a nostalgic chuckle, or as a hyper-specific time capsule. But it’s also a fascinating reminder on how the princess used those nine months to push the boundary on what, exactly, defined a modern maternity look. Diana refused to be a fashion wallflower while pregnant. Maybe in part because, at her level of fame, there’s no way she ever could.
Diana enlisted several designers to execute her vision of a posh, pregnant princess. She frequently wore Bellville Sassoon, an upscale Knightsbridge atelier, as well French British artisan Catherine Walker. Tina Brown wrote in The Diana Chronicles that she asked designer Jasper Conran to create outfits that showcased her now (noticeably fuller) cleavage during her second pregnancy with Prince Harry. “She wanted to be sexy during her maternity,” Conran told Brown. This didn’t, by the way, mean she opted for skintight fits meant for bump broadcasting: For the 1984 premiere of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, she wore a loose, silk, ice blue gown with a deep-V cut. Her modus operandi? Roomy yet revealing.
Each look was as standout as the next: a rich red evening gown trimmed with white lace for an evening at the Barbican, a flow-y blue and polka-dot dress with a ruffle collar for a trip to the Isles of Scilly. A polo match was the perfect occasion for a hot pink frock adorned with some unwieldy sailor-scarf-tie hybrid. Anything outdoors called for a colorful designer coat with slightly ridiculous accents—a shaggy exterior, a fringed bottom, a frayed, fuzzy collar boasted by sky-high shoulder pads—often paired with an equally, slightly ridiculous John Boyd hat. (The woman loved a feather.)
