Princess Diana was known for her fashion-forward choices, often sparking attention with her outfits, particularly after her separation from Prince Charles. However, even while still married to him, Diana and her hairstylist Richard Dalton frequently made headlines with their iconic looks, one of which came from a rather unexpected source, a sunburn Diana couldn’t recover from before an event.
In his book It’s All About the Hair: My Decade with Diana, Princess of Wales, Dalton shared a memorable moment from their royal tour of Australia in 1985. On October 31, Diana mentioned having a sunburn on her neck after spending the day in the hot Australian sun. Despite this, she wanted to wear an emerald and diamond necklace that had been a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth for a gala dinner at the Southern Cross Hotel that evening.
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Dalton was struck by the beauty of the necklace and, inspired by its allure, he suggested an unconventional idea. “Why don’t we stick some emeralds in your hair?” he recalled thinking in the book.
During a panel for People’s 50th anniversary, Dalton elaborated on how the idea came to life. He asked Evelyn, Diana’s dresser, for six inches of knicker elastic, typically used by grandmothers and turned the necklace into a headband. He carefully tied the elastic to the necklace, draped it around Diana’s forehead, and secured it at the back, styling her hair to hold it in place.
Diana was thrilled with the outcome, and as Dalton later reflected, “I never traveled without knicker elastic again.” He called the necklace-as-headband moment his “first big statement,” adding, “We caused such a sensation that night.”
The iconic necklace has since made a return, with Kate Middleton wearing it around her neck at the Earthshot Prize Awards in Boston in 2022, as originally intended.
