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In one memorable scene in the film Spencer, Kristen Stewart, playing Diana, Princess of Wales, rages against protocol and wears a bright red Chanel coat and black netted hat to church — a look that had been reserved for Boxing Day. The choice rings alarm bells throughout the household, where her wardrobe would have been tightly managed by her personal team, and is read as rebellion. “No one is above tradition,” warns the draconian equerry Major Alistair Gregory (a fictional character played by Timothy Spall).
The film, directed by Pablo Larraín, takes place over an imagined Christmas holiday weekend in 1991, as Diana comes to terms with Charles’s infidelity, as well as the pressures of what it means to be a royal, and it is a masterclass in how our wardrobes define our sense of self — as well as how important the optics are for figures in the limelight.
Stewart is a highly believable Diana, but it is her clothes — which segue from a bold tartan trophy jacket through a demure chartreuse evening gown and a dazzling Chanel strapless evening dress to her “liberation” outfit of blazer and high-rise jeans — that set the scene and give her portrayal a halo-like aura. While the rest of the royal household are dressed in the muted greens, greys and blues of country tweeds and corduroys, Diana stands out like a symbolic firework.
The wardrobe for Spencer is the work of the costume designer Jacqueline Durran, 55, whose credits include Anna Karenina and Little Women, for which she won Academy awards. In preparation she took an almost forensic deep dive into a particular period of Diana’s life, from 1988 to 1992. “In making the film I was never under the impression that this was a documentary in any shape or form. It was about making a believable Diana,” says Durran, who pored over thousands of images of the late princess from archival picture sources, books and magazines during her research. “I tried to get a feeling of what she was wearing and why she dressed in that style at the time.”
The early Nineties was a key moment in Princess Diana’s life. “It was a period of transition, and it seemed her choices got bolder and bolder to the point of being almost confrontational,” Durran says. “Diana’s clothing was like an armour and she appeared like a great, confident woman. She wore a lot of British designers including Bruce Oldfield and Murray Arbeid, as well as Catherine Walker, who was instrumental in defining her image at the time. Beyond 1992 Diana seemed to become much more herself in her style choices.”
The focused timeline also allowed Larraín and Durran to draw a line under the depiction of Diana in The Crown, with which there are certain to be comparisons. However, Larraín’s tense emotional drama, as well as Stewart’s formidable portrayal, puts Spencer in a different league from the romanticised myth-making in The Crown. The choice of outfits helped to guide the scene-setting, and Larraín photographed the fittings with Stewart to help craft the film. “It was Jackie [Larraín’s 2016 film about Jackie Kennedy] that made me so interested in the project. It’s a close look at a style icon, how an iconic look is built and what that means to everyone over time,” Durran says.
Because of the Covid restrictions the designer had limited time with Stewart, who flew to the UK for a lengthy fitting that involved trying on looks that had been made for her (from archival images), archive pieces from Chanel (that would be remade in its Paris atelier) and a cross-section of vintage pieces. “Kristen really knows about style and how to wear clothes, and she can look at something and intuit a way of wearing it,” says Durran of the 31-year-old actress. “There’s a scene with Diana dancing down the hallway in an evening dress and Kristen embodies that moment, walks so brilliantly in the midst of the downward spiral of the day.”
The relationship between Princess Diana and her maid, Maggie (played by Sally Hawkins), is a study in friendship and love when Maggie reveals her devotion to Diana on a windy Norfolk beach and both fall about with laughter. Diana is wearing a Mondi baseball jacket (sourced from a vintage site) and jeans, and with that outfit you understand that she is readying herself to break free with her beloved boys from Charles.
Although Durran’s research was thorough, she did not feel the need to remain true to history. “I mix it up — some are true replicas, some hybrid and some made up. What was important was to have that feeling of Diana. Finding those items was a constant search, and Kristen is small. Original Eighties clothes are boxy, so we needed to find and design pieces with the right proportions for her,” she says. One Larraín favourite was a tailored coat and tricorn hat ensemble that Diana originally wore (albeit in red) on a visit to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1989. The look, with the rebellious pirate hat, was adapted in primrose yellow for a feverish reverie scene.
As a viewer you are put wincingly close to the characters over this claustrophobic weekend at Sandringham. At one point the camera zooms in on Stewart’s neck, which is almost being strangled by a huge pearl necklace — a Christmas gift from her husband.
The magic of Durran’s costume design is her ability to build an aura through fashion. Durran, who was fascinated by London designers and street style as a teenager, studied philosophy before learning her craft at Angels Costumes in London. She then got her big break with the award-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming.
Durran remembers the furore surrounding Diana in the Eighties and Nineties. Musing on why the younger generation are so besotted with the princess’s style today, she says: “When I was growing up Diana was not fashionable — royal family fashion was a parallel universe. It’s fascinating that her style is now so fashionable and how the process of reappropriation has changed that over time.’’
With such strong performances, breathtaking cinematography and a peach of a wardrobe to boot, there’s a lot to look forward to in Spencer.
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