Princess Diana's wardrobe for the final season of Netflix's hit royal drama The Crown perfectly recreates the 1990s glamour that the royal was widely celebrated for, while also being packed with "poignant" symbolism, costume designers for the show have told Newsweek.
The Crown first hit screens in 2016, chronologically charting the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. In the show's fourth season, the character of Princess Diana was first introduced as played by Golden Globe winner Emma Corrin. In 2022, Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki took over the part, playing the princess in the years building up to the tragedy of her 1997 death.
The show's sixth season will debut in two parts on November 16 and December 14, the first of which will cover the short weeks leading up to Diana's death and the devastating impact on her family and the monarchy.
Speaking to Newsweek ahead of the episodes' release, costume designers Amy Roberts and Sidonie Roberts reflected on recreating some of Diana's most famous final looks on screen, noting the emotion of seeing her final outfits on hangers, marking the end of her short timespan as a character.
"It was interesting actually, because for this season alone she doesn't wear all that much," Sidonie Roberts said. "But they're so significant. So in their significance it feels huge, but in actuality, she probably has the least [costumes]."
"Because we know what goes on to happen," she continued. "The way that we analyze or think about what she wears in those last moments...is very poignant in terms of of symbolism."
Over the course of the first episodes of the new season, Diana's developing love story with film producer Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) is explored, with the princess holidaying on a yacht in the South of France with her new boyfriend before traveling to Paris where tragedy would strike, ending both of their lives after a high speed car crash.
"It's so quick after that holiday, really, that tragedy strikes, isn't it?" Amy Roberts said. "Because I kept saying 'we've only got that suit and that jacket and those jeans. Surely no?' And that really brought it home to us, I think.
"Just having two outfits when she goes to Paris, you think: 'Oh, that's it. That's over now.' So, it was quite shocking."
Over the course of the episodes, a number of Diana's most famous 1990s fashion moments are recreated, including a Catherine Walker vivid red shift dress which the princess wore to her final public engagement at a hospital in Britain just weeks before her death.
In the show, the costume team painstakingly recreated the dress, with Debicki wearing it as the princess embarks on her first yacht holiday with the Fayed family, accompanied by Princes William (Rufus Kampa) and Harry (Fflyn Edwards).
"There is so few moments of costume, I would say everyone was very poignantly chosen," Sidonie Roberts said of the red dress.
"She needed to feel very clear and clean among the slightly more chaotic or relaxed nature of the Fayeds, who are in leopard print and ostentatious kind of Versace patterns and so there's a messiness there or relaxation. So, she needed to feel clearer and bolder before she embarks on that look and journey."
Also recreated for the show were a number of swimwear pieces which Diana was famously photographed in as members of the paparazzi stalked her final holiday with Fayed, hoping to get shots confirming the couple's romance.
For these days of shooting, Sidonie Roberts highlighted that Diana's wardrobe was not planned out, as other characters such as Queen Elizabeth II (played by Imelda Staunton) were.
"When we got to Spain and I was filming with Elizabeth, we actually had to have her wardrobe on the yacht," she said. "And so it would be a case of me and Elizabeth talking almost in the morning going: 'Who am I seeing today? What am I doing? Who am I with? What mood am I?' And we'd almost pick in that way. So it was a very different process I think."
In addition to her wardrobe, The Crown's creative team also worked to recreate Diana's famous bobbed blonde hairstyle which she adopted just weeks before her death, and her minimalist but still regal makeup looks.
In an interview given to Netflix before the SAG-AFTRA actors union strike which has prevented The Crown's stars from promoting the season so far, Elizabeth Debicki commented on the weight of responsibility she felt in portraying Diana's final moments on-screen.
"I think it's a really unique challenge as an actor, to portray those days. I really just trusted in Peter [Morgan, creator and writer]'s emotional blueprint that he created for us to follow," she said. "It's his interpretation and I think it made emotional sense to me, so I clung to that. Because, obviously, it's devastating and it's fraught and we can never know."
The Crown Season 6 will be released in two installments on November 16 and December 14 on Netflix.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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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
