A Rose for Christmas

You can still order the Diana, Princess of Wales™ Hybrid Tea Rose For those  garden enthusiasts on your Christmas list . For $19.95 you can help raise money for the Diana Memorial Fund and receive 1 bare root rose bush ready for your spring planting next year. Since it’s introduction in 1998 Jackson Perkins has donated$694,618 to Diana’s memorial Fund in support of the humanitarian causes that were so close to her heart.  This popular rose continues Diana’s legacy of giving with 10% of all net sales.If you place your order for Christmas it will not ship til spring of 2009 ready for planting.  Just be sure to let the person your giving them rose to by maybe mentioning it in a Christmas card. They can not be shipped to Canada but any where elese should be ok to have it shipped. For more information check out the website here.

Diana’s designer reveals the secrets of the Princess’s ‘caring dress’

Her wedding dress turned her into a fairytale princess and the dazzling creations that followed made her a fashion icon. The dress Diana, Princess of Wales, loved most, however, was a more modest number.
Source The Daily Telegraph

Diana, Princess of Wales, wearing her ‘caring dress’, one of more than 70 outfits made for her by designer David Sassoon Photo: GETTY IMAGES

She called it her “caring dress” and one of the Princess’s favourite designers has now revealed how determined she was to defy public criticism and keep wearing it.

David Sassoon explained that the Princess’s devotion to the floral crepe-de-Chine design was because she realised its bright colours was attractive to sick or suffering children, making them relaxed in her presence.

It meant that when she faced comment from a public unaware of her reasons for wearing the dress, the Princess told Mr Sassoon she would not bow to popular pressure.

The designer told The Sunday Telegraph: “She would say ‘I keep being told not to wear it, but I love this dress, my caring dress’. Of course Diana was the first member of the Royal family to break all the rules.”

Mr Sassoon, who has spent 50 years dressing some of the world’s most beautiful women at his couture house Bellville Sassoon, designed the dress for a foreign tour in 1988.

The Princess went on to wear it in Lagos in Nigeria, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and also while visiting a London Aids hospice.

Press reports in the 1990s speculated that she loved the dress because of its colour, but Mr Sassoon explained: “She happened to wear that dress when visiting a hospital, and children seemed to clamour round and like it. If you are like the Princess of Wales, who loved children, you don’t want a strictly formal suit for a hospital visit. You pick a very informal dress with bright colours, which that dress was. The reaction is one of awe from young children.”

Mr Sassoon’s new book The Glamour of Bellville Sassoon shows for the first time the Princess’s thank you note for the dress. It also reveals her handwritten comments on Mr Sassoon’s sketches, charting her light-hearted relationship with the designer.

Mr Sassoon, who made more than 70 outfits for the Princess, revealed how she never took clothes too seriously despite the extent to which her appearance was scrutinised. She could even pop into his London shop and choose an outfit just hours before wearing it at a formal engagement.

“She just appeared in the shop saying ‘help’. I have never enjoyed such an informal relationship with a member of the Royal family, and I am sure I never will again.

“Diana was much more relaxed about dressing, but she always got it right – she had the figure and the sheer charm.”

Where other Royal family members would earnestly practise curtsying in their new clothes, the Princess would delight in removing her thermal underwear before trying on a designer dress.

Mr Sassoon said: “She was very proud of the fact that she wore thermals because she didn’t like overcoats. When she was going into the fitting room, she would say ‘Just a minute, let me take my thermals off’. I think she enjoyed all that.”

Two of Mr Sassoon’s previously unpublished sketches from 1984 also show how, away from the public gaze, the Princess was already blossoming from a shy girl into the “red carpet glamour girl” remembered by posterity.

The black jersey dress with a very low back and the pink blouson jacket with long skirt were, Mr Sassoon said, a sign of things to come.

“They were for private use and a little more sexy, a little more fashion than what she could wear publicly at the time. Before her divorce, her clothes could never be overtly sexy. But just think how amazing she looked in the last years of her life. She was a red carpet glamour girl.”

Diana Paper Dolls

Get out your scissors and get ready to discover the world of Diana paper dolls. Since the 80s Diana has been  popular with paperdoll artists. Since her death many of her fans have been scrambling around trying to find all the paper dolls of Diana.  Many of these can be found on Ebay as well on the web.

For the Little Princess’s

PaperDolls of Diana were also made for her younger fans as well  Starting in the early 80s with several coloring/paperdoll books.  These were made with the easy punch out dolls and outfits.  Today they are higly sought after by many of the little girls (now adults) who missed out on these the first time around.

Golden Books  by Whitman publishing  Published in the USA

  

Diana Coloring/Paperdoll books 

Box Paperdoll Sets made for little girls

Collector Paper Dolls 

These dolls were made for the adult collector they are not really made to be played with although the artwork is very good.

Magazine Paper Dolls

Many magazines overseas published paperdolls of Diana in various magazines  Some were even published in Childrens magazines.

From The Famous Woman Series publish by Doll World.

  

  From Året Runt in 1983

This paper doll comes from the kids pages of Hemmets Veckotidning in 1986.

 Året Runt, in 1982

Various Artists

Pat Frey  is my favorite set of Diana paperdolls it was a brilliant idea to include small photos of Diana along with the outfits.  

Sandra Vandrapool

Donald Hendricks

 Brenda Sneathen Mattox

Part of the Princesses of Wales series

Dawn Jarvis

 

These were made as a souviner for the wedding.

Postcard Diana paperdolls

Just Discovered 

by Judy M Johnson

Judy painted this full figure portrait of lovely Diana shortly before she died in 1997, then it was sadly put away for 11 years, until now. By scanning her dresses from photo books, and doing digital alterations on them, Judy has made clothing for the doll, and arranged them in this new book. The costumes are from her happier days with her husband, Prince Charles, during the late 1980s. She was careful to dress beautifully, yet appropriately, for State visits to Canada, France, and Australia.
There are six pages total, including the covers featuring eleven of Diana’s pretty frocks.

The Duchess Movie Tie In Book Available at Walmart

The Duchess is now available At  your local Walmart just in time for Christmas.

Diana to Be Inducted In To Headwear Hall of Fame

The Headwear association.org will be Honoring Diana  by Inducting her in the First Headwear Hall of Fame.Diana will be among the first six to be inducted in to the hall, She  shares this honor with 5 other noteworthy icons Vince Lombardi, Johnny Depp, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Madonna.  The Headwear Hall of Fame is proud  to recognize the positive influence of famous hat wearers- who routinely wear a hat in their daily life for fashion, fun, or function- not just performing a character on television, stage, or in a movie.

My top 10 Favorite Diana Photo Books

Diana was undoubtly the most photographed woman in the world. It was only natural to take those photographs of her and publish a book. Some of the most repsected Royal Photographers who followed Diana around the globe did just this very thing.  Today there are books on Diana’ fashion, hair and makeup as well as her worldy travels. So which ones are the best of for photographs of the most photographed woman? Here is my list.

1Dresses From the Collection of Diana Princess of Wales.This is the Ultimate Diana photo book it covers the 79 gowns that she auctioned off for charity in 1997. Can only be purchased on Ebay.

2A Dress for Diana Is the history of the most famous wedding gown of the century. Great vintage photos of the gown in the process of being made along with some background information that was not shared with the public before.

3Orignally printed as 26 partwork series publish from March to september of 1998.    Diana : An Extroadinary Life tells Diana’s complete story from birth to her tragic death. With over 2000 colour pictures, newspaper cuttings, and even the original designer’s sketches of the dresses they made for her, this is the Diana bible. Divided into four sections — Chronicle, In Fashion, The People’s Princess and the Princess of Charities.

4Diana the Unseen Archives includes lots of early pressphotos from the 80s all the way up to 1997.

5Dressing Diana A Coprehinsive look at the designers who dressed Diana during her reign as Princess of wales. This is the book most doll  cloth designers use as refernece when creating outfits for the Princess Diana doll  by the Franklin Mint

6Diana Portrait of a Princess All the Photos were taken by Royal Photographer Jayne Fincher Who has taken many of the classic Diana photos that we all have come to love.

7Diana Princess of Wales At Kensington Palace is book dedicated to Diana’s last photo shoot. Mario tells the story of that special day when Diana was able to just be her self in front of the camera. If you were not able to make it to the exhibit in london to the the photos upclose this book is the next best thing.

8Diana Princess of Wales book of fashion a chronicle of Diana’s early 1980s fashions. Wonderful shots of her jewels as well.

9The Diana Look by Sue James. More of Diana ‘s 80s fashions along with many desinger sketches and how you can get the Diana look for your self.

10Diana Secrets of her style a look at Diana’s Style transformation from the 80s til her death including some sketches as well

This list is comprised from my own private collection of books, I am sure there are many others out there which have much better photos and information. But these are the ones in my library that I consider my favorites.

The Worst Tribute to Diana

In 1998 every one and their sister was claiming to pay tribute to Diana in some form. The worst one I came across was a doll from The International Historical Society. Their tribute to Diana was to be a Angel doll of Diana with fiber optic wings. She would have been given the name  “Still Working Miracles” Diana.The ad for this hideous doll apperared in the August 1998 Doll Reader, it inlcuded a poem.

Oh No  Please don’t weep for me , For I am in peace and harmony

Take me home and you will see my guiding light shining over thee.

I will be your guardian angel today and guide you in a helpful way

I’ll bring you faith and hope to see  the light that shines through eternity.

So love and cherish each day of life teach the children and conquer strife.

Love one another  and give with your heart Inspire peace on earth… what a great start!

So take me in to your home and share a taste of heaven and loving care, I wish most precious things to those who cherish me your, English Rose.

If you were the first 250 people who placed your order you also recieved the still working Miracles Diana collectors plate. All for $119.94. I have never seen the actual doll or the plate which is probably a good thing. I am sure who ever came up with this insulting doll was scared off by the Franklin lawsuit. If the Diana memorial fund had to sue any one it should have been the International Historical Society for thier attempt  make fun of Diana’s good works and compassion.

KIAS Princess Dolls

A wonderful lady who I purchase many of My Diana adverts from came across this one that showed some really nice Diana inspired dolls.  The advertisement did not mention Diana  but you can tell by looking at the outfits the doll is wearing. Some of them are really good interpretations of Diana’s clothes. The sad thing only one of these dolls were produced and it was the  Sparkling Princess a  interpretation  of the “Elvis” gown Diana wore to Hong Kong. The dolls were to be 22 INCHES tall and ranged in price from $69.00 to 195.00  They were given names like Rosebud Princess, London Princess, Spring time Princess, Sunday Princess, Teatime Princess, Valentine Princess,  Princess, Champagne Princess, Starlight Princess, Sparkling Princess, Golden Princess and Angel Princess.  it is my guess that production on the dolls was stopped as soon as the Franklin Mint lawsuit started. Once the lawsuit was in full swing ,companies who were going to create dolls in Diana’s likeness became paranoid and changed thier minds.  It looks like this series of dolls was one of it’s victims.To see the dolls upclose check out the Diana Collectible advert  website it will be uploaded there this  afternoon.

New Ads Uploaded.

Several New Diana Advertisments have been added to Jewelry, dolls,plates and Misc Folders.