On Tuesday, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall carried a handbag from the fashion house Chanel during a royal tour of Canada, emblazoned with a logo said to have caused Princess Diana uneasiness in the 1990s.
Camilla—Prince Charles' second wife—carried Chanel's 'Coco' quilted handbag on her arrival in Ottawa during a three day tour of Canada with her husband to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.
Royal commentators warned that Charles and Camilla's reception in Canada may not be as warm as those given to the likes of Prince William and Kate Middleton because the "long shadow" of Diana still looms over the couple in North America.
Camilla is a long established fan of the French fashion brand Chanel, which was founded in the early twentieth century by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and became most well known for pioneering the "little black dress" and signature bouclé tweed wool suits.
The duchess' bag features the brand's iconic logo on its closure, which is formed from two interlocking C's. This logo reportedly made Diana uneasy during the 1990s as it reminded her of Charles and Camilla, who, as the princess said in her infamous 1995 Panorama interview, she considered to be a third party in her marriage.
Diana was a loyal Chanel client, wearing pieces from the house's ready-to-wear collections to public events including suits, bags and shoes designed by creative director, Karl Lagerfeld.
According to Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, the princess' aversion to interlocking C's started when she found an engraved gift from Camilla to Charles while on her honeymoon.
"On the Royal Britannia on her honeymoon, Diana found the cufflinks with the intertwined C's and had an almighty row with her husband and said 'what is this?'," Burrell told U.K TV host Lorraine Kelly in 2020. "It was a wedding gift from Camilla so that Charles would never forget her with the intertwined Cs."
Following this, the former butler, who was accused of stealing from Diana's estate in 2002 after her death, told Kelly that he had been instructed by the princess to remove all the Chanel logos from her accessories.
"From then on, I had to unpick all the intertwined Cs off her shoes and off her handbags," he said.
"Of course, it was Chanel and most girls would die for them, but not the Princess."
Another account of Diana's discomfort with the logo comes from the Australian fashion designer, Jayson Brundson who met the princess on her visit to the country in 1996, the year of her divorce from Charles.
Speaking to Harpers Bazaar Australia, Brundson recounted: "I was very good friends with Joh Bailey and Joh was appointed her hairdresser while she was here on the visit."
"She hadn't been divorced very long and Joh knew I was a massive fan. He had an assistant going with him every day to the Ritz Carlton in the morning to do her hair for the day. So he said to me, 'Would you like to come as my assistant?' on the Saturday [appointment] and I said, 'Yes of course I would, I'd love to.'"
He continued that on being introduced to the princess, he was asked to help put together her outfit. "She came out holding like handfuls of shoes and bags and just dumped them all down on the couch," he remembered.
"Then [Diana] said, 'What do you think?', so I went through them all and I found a pair of Chanel shoes, and I said, 'Well these would look great with the Versace,' and she said 'No, I can't wear linked Cs, the double C.' So I asked why, and she said, 'It's Camilla and Charles.'"
Despite this aversion to the logo, Diana did not stop patronizing Chanel and wore an ice blue bouclé wool tweed Chanel suit (interlocking C buttons included) to the confirmation of Prince William at Windsor Castle just months before she died.
After his divorce from Diana, Charles developed his relationship with Camilla into a serious partnership which, following the princess' tragic death in 1997, would lead to their marriage in 2005.
Camilla owns multiple Chanel bags, but her 'Coco' style carried in Canada has been seen publicly more than any other.
This year marks the queen's Platinum Jubilee and also the 25th anniversary of Diana's death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997. Last year a statue of the princess was unveiled at her former home, Kensington Palace by Princes William and Harry.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
