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Diana Gowns in Legal Muddle
Controversy does not elude the people princess even over a decade after her death. In all eagerness to help, Princess Diana had said months before her death that she would wish her clothes went to help the poor and needy.
Her priceless dresses are now the core point of a bankruptcy fight. People Princess Charitable Foundation Inc founder Maureen Rorech Dunkel is fighting to keep gowns worn by the princess. The tiff has gone on for over a year. This time, most of Diana royal dress collection is at stake.
Dunkel sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 7, a day before a state court hearing was to choose who should care for five of 13 gowns, which were displayed at Downtown Disney in Orlando through November. Dunkel and the non-profit was sued by HRH Ventures LLC, managed by Patricia C Sullivan in October. HRH Ventures LLC said they defaulted on $1.5 million in loans that were secured by 13 Princess Diana gowns.
Fari Candleholders
Candle in the wind was one of the first songs that touched me deeply as a pubescent child when Princess Diana passed away, and Elton John sang it in her honour. Ever since, candles have had a strange significance which almost border on terms of being supernatural. Thus, when I come across beautiful candle stands, they just take my breath away.
Renowned designer Kim Katinis from Athens, Greece has designed the Fari Candleholders which are made of special birch, plywood, pmma and cork. He was inspired by the idea of a lighthouse in the midst of a sea storm, on a strange rock. That lighthouse not only provides warmth and guidance to shipwreck sailors, but also radiate hope and energy in times of darkness.
The Fari Candleholders by Kim represent this idea of a lighthouse and they come in two different colour variations. The candleholders could be kept in various interior ambience and they would suit all sorts of interior decor.
Princess Diana’s gowns to be auctioned
Considering the style icon that Princess Diana was, her dresses have been quite a rage in auction circles. Now, some of her “most recognizable dresses” will be auctioned by the Canadian auction house Waddinton’s. The highlights of the auction include a stunning midnight blue dinner dress that Princess Di wore to a State dinner at the White House in Washington in 1985, hosted by American President, Ronald Reagan. Inspired by the Edwardian era, the gown designed by Victor Edelstein in silk and velvet was made specifically for the event.
Another notable dress that goes under the hammer is a V-necked long dress, set with dark green sequins and a slit right up to the knee. The gown designed by Jacob Schaepfer for the Chelsea Design Company, London, was estimated at a staggering $200,000, which the Princess wore on two occasions, a state function at Vienna in 1986 and a film premiere in 1993.
Princess Diana’s unseen letters to be auctioned
Princess Diana’s personal letters are on sale yet again. This time it has been put up for auction by 69-year-old Margaret Hodge. All correspondence between Mrs. Hodge and Princess Diana will be up for sale by Colchester’s auctioneers Reeman Dansie later this month. Even after her wedding to Prince Charles, Diana continued to keep in touch with Mrs. Hodge, whom she had met while working in a London kindergarten.
In her earlier letters Princess Diana talks beamingly about her honeymoon in the Balmoral estate describing it as “heavenly”. Always addressing Mrs. Hodge as “Dearest Margaret”, Diana writes in another letter of her Highgrove residence relating to her of playing house as a newly married couple and decorating the residence with bright colors. The collection also includes a thank you note from Diana thanking Mrs. Hodge for the anniversary card she had sent to her and Prince Charles on the occasion of their fifth wedding anniversary in July 1986. After the birth of William, she proudly wrote about buying everything on his Santa’s list.
Princess Diana beach to mark her 50th birthday
Princess Diana was a beautiful woman who loved being pampered, and had heart of gold too. So as her elder son take his nuptial vows, a beach on the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, in the West Indies will be renamed in honor Princess Diana on the 1sy of July, which would have been her 50th birthday.
The three-mile stretch of tranquil stretch was one of her favorite spots. Barbuda became a sanctuary for the princess, and she seemed to find solace in the beauty of the island.
Honeymoon still a Mystery
Britain’s Prince William and his new bride reveal their honeymoon destination on Saturday, after millions of people around the world tuned in to watch the couple tie the knot in a dazzling display of royal pageantry.
The prince and Kate Middleton, his 29-year-old girlfriend of nearly a decade, married in London’s historic Westminster Abbey on Friday in the biggest royal wedding for 30 years.
Bookmaker Paddy Power has Mustique as the favorite, followed by Jordan, the Seychelles and Australia.
The intense speculation over the couple’s every move underlines the pressure they will face as the future British king and queen living in the full glare of the media spotlight.
Uncomfortable parallels have been drawn between Middleton and William’s hugely popular mother Princess Diana, who was hounded by paparazzi right up to her death in a Paris car crash in 1997 aged just 36.
Middleton has been given the title Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge, after the queen made her grandson William the Duke of Cambridge to mark the marriage.
Royal-wedding ephemera on sale
The wedding of HRH Prince William to the lovely Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey has become one of the most anticipated occasions of the 21st century. Since the moment the couple announced their plans to marry, the market has been flooded with products designed to commemorate this epic event.
Noble knits: A unique tributes to the royal wedding, this crafty kit by Fiona Goble includes instructions for a handknit wedding scene complete with patterns for Prince William, Kate Middleton, the Queen and other members of the royal family, and a foldout illustration of Westminster Abbey so you can display your creations.
High tea: You might not be able to sip high tea with Her Royal Highness, but with these novelty tea bags, designed in the likeness of the prince and his bride-to-be, you can steep your beverage with a bit of British royalty.
Princess cut: Beauty reigns supreme with this stunning simulated sapphire ring, a replica of the gem which originally belonged to the late Princess Diana and now sits on the future princess’s ring finger.
Collectible crockery: Make those royal-wedding memories last forever — in your china cabinet. Royal Worcester, in association with the highly respected ceramicist William Edwards, has created a stunning tableware collection featuring a specially commissioned portrait of William and Kate. Each piece has been delicately hand-decorated and finished in 22-carat gold.
Is that an octopus on your head?
Beatrice was misled, as were many women in the Abbey on Friday, by a man with a history. His name is allegedly Philip Treacy, hatmaker to the aristocracy, and he has made many wealthy women look stupid over the decades, although never Princess Diana who didn’t tolerate any nonsense.
Victoria Beckham’s hat crime is similar to Beatrice’s but blacker. The hat is pierced by a shrub that, by sheer coincidence, grows in my own garden. It’s called a corkscrew hazel. Beckham snipped a few twigs, spray-painted them black and stuck them in a pillbox.
Jackie Kennedy wore pillboxes on the back of her head, quite successfully. I have no explanation for the rampaging forehead thrust beyond the craving for notoriety, a curse of the modern age, as P.G. Wodehouse wrote almost a century ago.
Add some white netting and bits of an old scarf I thought was still in my sock drawer, and you have yourself a hat! The Princess Royal doesn’t waste money.
Prince William pays tribute to Diana
Prince William made sure his mother Princess Diana in his own words didn’t “miss out” on the ceremony and celebrations for his wedding to Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey on Friday.
His bride wore Diana’s engagement ring, a hymn from his late mother’s funeral was sung at the service and guests for the wedding included Elton John who sang “Candle in the Wind” at Diana’s funeral in the abbey.
Fourteen years ago, the eyes of the world watched as William, then 15, walked solemnly behind the coffin of his mother as it was taken through the packed streets of London to her funeral.
William wed Middleton in front of almost 2,000 guests and an audience of millions worldwide. But the one person conspicuous by her absence was Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. From the moment the couple announced they were getting married last November, William has deliberately ensured that Diana’s memory would not be forgotten, giving Middleton his mother’s large blue oval sapphire and diamond engagement ring.
Before the wedding, the couple was reported to have visited Diana’s resting place, an island at her family’s Althorp estate in central England.
The wedding address was delivered by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, who knew Diana since her 1981 marriage to William’s father Prince Charles and was an executor of her will. One of the hymns chosen by the couple for their service, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer,” was the final one to be sung at Diana’s funeral.
Kate Middleton’s wedding dress
More than a billion eyes were on Kate Middleton as she stepped out of the queen’s 1977 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI in front of London’s Westminster Abbey on Friday wearing a wedding dress of fairy-tale princess-esque proportions a dress that will be immortalized in fashion history.
The big reveal was the culmination of what was perhaps the tightest-kept piece of information pertaining to her royal wedding to Prince William.
Middleton emerged from her wedding-eve residence of the Goring Hotel around 10:55 a.m. local time. Despite a tent set up to obscure the view, the lacy, long-sleeved, sweetheart-neckline gown with lace overlay could be glimpsed. With an ivory silk tulle veil trimmed with hand-embroidered flowers, sparkling tiara and her hair swept half up, Middleton was the picture of princess perfection. It took some adjusting to fold the almost-9-foot train into the car, where she was seated next to her father, Michael Middleton.
The royal wedding website says Middleton chose McQueen “for the beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing. Miss Middleton wished for her dress to combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterizes Alexander McQueen’s work.” It also says Middleton “worked closely” with Burton on the design.
Much like David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the husband-and-wife designer duo commissioned to create the oversized and outrageous wedding dress that Princess Diana wore when she wed Prince Charles in 1981, the designer will always be tied to the historic nuptials. Burton also designed the sleek, cowl-necked dress worn by Pippa Middleton, the bride’s younger sister, who served as maid of honor.
Burton’s designs also made headlines after Michelle Obama wore a billowing red-and-black Alexander McQueen dress to a state dinner for China in January. Other celebrity clients include Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga and Gwyneth Paltrow.
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