There aren't many jobs that involve spending five hours searching for buttons in tiny vintage treasure troves in the Sacré Coeur. But working in the costume department at The Crown is no ordinary day job. For costume director Amy Roberts and head buyer and assistant costume designer Sidonie Roberts, who spend three months sourcing the cast's wardrobe for each season, it's a matter of course to search the world over for tiny garment details, such as the specific color of yarn used for the buttons and the lining of the garment they sit on.
The sixth season continues to focus on Princess Diana. The drama also revolved around her increasing estrangement from the royal family and ultimately her death. The team decided to use what they called a "Diana algorithm" - a sophisticated formula that helped them decide what the late princess would have worn today - to create a wardrobe that was relentlessly scrutinized by the press. "Diana's story is [actually] very private," Amy explains. "There are very intimate moments that we will never know. We have to take creative liberties - for example, what ads would Diana be shown on her computer these days? - because we're not making a documentary."
The issues with permissions, which make it legally difficult to recreate certain royal looks, also allowed the costume designers to think outside the box when it came to clothing - especially when it came to jewelry. Their secret weapon? Susan Caplan. "If anyone can do it, Susan can," is the motto in the fashion department at The Crown, where the curator's showroom for luxurious vintage jewelry is considered a kind of Aladdin's cave. The pièce de résistance that Caplan provided for Elizabeth Debicki as Diana? The pearl and sapphire choker Diana wore with her "revenge dress" at the 1994 Serpentine summer party.
"It was a wonderful opportunity to challenge myself," says Caplan, who hired a skilled "stringer" from antiques dealer Bentley & Skinner to help her thread the dozens of archival pearls onto the stacked choker before scouring her stash of Swarovski gemstones from the '20s and '30s for a dramatic oval sapphire to set in the center. The four-row adaptation of the ornate original reflects the history of the necklace itself. Originally a brooch given to Diana by the Queen Mother on her wedding day in 1981, the Princess transformed the duck egg of a sapphire embedded with two rows of diamonds into a seven-row necklace that showed she was taking her story into her own hands.
"This outfit was almost like a vehicle for us to move Diana forward," Amy explains. "She becomes less palatial, goes from wearing two pearl necklaces to just one, and finds her fashion identity through costume jewelry." One of Diana's favorite pieces? Chanel earrings without the double C logo - a nod to Prince Charles and his then-lover Camilla - and statement earrings by Butler & Wilson, which paved the way for others to experiment with costume jewelry in the '80s and '90s.
Over the last decade, the simplicity of the trend cycle also found its way into Diana's wardrobe. Her minimalist hoop earrings, for example, became the new pearl clip-ons. "I feel like she got up, brushed her teeth and then put on her hoop earrings, so even in the weaker moments [of her look] she was still embellished," says Amy, who loves that these little pieces of jewelry say so much about the person. "I think Diana was a bit of a magpie - there's a real core of identity that comes out through her jewelry because she made a lot of it herself. She enjoyed doing that."
Diana's ambiguity is part of the enduring appeal of the late royal, argue the pair, who found the process of imagining her wardrobe endlessly fascinating. "She's completely enigmatic and alluring, but accessible at the same time [in the sense that anyone can emulate her style]," notes Amy, with Susan adding, "Once you're a magpie, you're always a magpie."
November 09, 2023
