I never saw the message Diana was sending us, enthralled as we were with her every fashion move. Diana wore this "black sheep sweater" in 1981, shortly after the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles. Did she really know how fraught that marriage would be and how she would feel so at odds with most of the royal family? One thinks not, especially as she replied "Of course" to an interviewer's "And in love?", to which Charles famously mumbled, "Whatever in love means." We should have known.
Her sweater (a jumper in Brit-speak) was designed in 1979 by a firm called Warm & Wonderful, favorites of Diana's Sloane Ranger set. It now holds a place in the Victoria and Albert's permanent collection. The sweater's popularity allowed the firm to expand its knitwear line, and it's still in business as Muir & Osbourne.
Leave it to us Americans to bring back the black sheep. The firm Rowing Blazers has reissued Diana's black sheep (with approval). It's available for both men and women and sells for $295, which would have been $82 in 1979.
We forgave Diana many fashion faux pas. This wasn't one of them, but her wedding dress was fairly awful, and her going away outfit even worse. She redeemed herself as she became more her own woman, and she did send messages loud and clear. My favorite is the slinky black dress she wore in 1994 on the night Charles publicly declared he had been unfaithful to her. It's been dubbed "the revenge dress", and you can see why.
But that was many moons to come. The black sheep sweater is still sweet, but oh, does it remind us of what we have lost.
I adore The Crown, but wonder if the Charles and Diana story is too fresh to be entertaining.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not Diana died 23 years ago, so it may not be a question of too soon, more how much it still hurts.
DeleteYes that’s true. Also the actual people are so fresh in my memory that it’s harder to lose myself in the story when I keep picturing the real person and find the actor distracting.
ReplyDeleteI suppose this will be a difficult thing for Charles as he will not be shown as the good guy.