Princess Diana’s Day in Flemington

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35 years ago, the Melbourne Cup was a very different affair than it is today. The famous birdcage was still a parking lot where people drove their Range Rovers and picnicked out of the trunk (it would be another year before the first company tent was erected). Businessman John Elliott, then head of Elders and Carlton & United Breweries, said the event was “dying” in the early 1980s when meetings in Sydney started offering larger prizes.

But all of that would change in 1985 when Elliott and Foster’s camp raised $ 1 million in sponsorship and the Victoria Racing Club (PRC) hosted Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Charles and Di happened to be in Melbourne for Victoria’s 150th birthday, as part of an extensive tour that also went to the USA. And while the Royals thrilled the crowd in 1983 by bringing in nine-month-old Prince William, there was no encore for Prince Harry, who was born in late 1984, and the heirs stayed behind this time.

From the moment they landed in Tullamarine, the royals have been bullied everywhere, including St. Paul’s Cathedral for a Sunday service and a stroll around the Botanical Gardens. On the evening of October 31st, Charles and Diana performed their dance moves at a charity ball that swirled on the dance floor at Stevie Wonder’s Ain’t she beautiful.

For the PRC, one of its biggest coups was the shot of the royal couple arriving by boat on the Maribyrnong River before taking a lap in a Rolls-Royce convertible. Nevertheless, the day was anything but drama-free. Heavy rainfall on Cup Eve and a measured maximum temperature of 23.9 degrees on Cup Day turned Flemington into a steaming bath of mud, and a train blow kept the crowd at around 77,000 – the lowest level since 1965.

„“[Diana] was so nice and so young and so exquisitely beautiful and really fun, “she says.” She had a great sense of humor. ”

During their day on the track, Charles and Diana had lunch in the 300-person committee room and unveiled a plaque dedicated to the renovated grandstand in honor of the future king. Despite the field with a horse named Rising Prince, Charles supported the eventual runner-up Koiro Corrie May, while Diana Under Oath finished 20th. But the palace strictly forbade photos of the royals during the actual race, presumably to avoid snapshots of them making awkward expressions.

Amanda Elliott says she is “very much in the background” and didn’t speak to Diana on Cup Day 1985. “I was just one of those really well behaved people in the back of the room who did their best to respectfully see what they were wearing and enjoy the day. ”

Traditionally, the Melbourne Cup dress code favors bright colors, but Diana opted for a black and white skirt suit by British designer Bruce Oldfield. The only allusion to Australia came through her hat made by the late Freddy Fox, who was born in Urana, a small town in NSW. She finished off the look with stockings adorned with little black bows and “sensible” black pumps.

He says 1985 was a turning point for Diana, who shed the girly frills of her early royal years and moved on to “her signature, more linear, textured, stylish outfits, almost all by British designers”.

After Singam bought an entirely new wardrobe for a royal trip to Italy in April and May of this year, he had high hopes for Diana’s Melbourne outfits. Though he adored the turquoise one-shoulder gown Diana wore to the October 31st ball – paired with Queen Mary’s emerald necklace on her forehead instead of a tiara, apparently because her neck was sunburned – her Cup Day outfit left him a little “disappointed”. .

Singam was lining up with fellow Wellwishers along Swanston Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the royal motorcade on the way to Flemington. He recognized the suit immediately from the June trips to Royal Ascot and Rome.

“She looked so chic and beautiful, but I was expecting something flashy and not a repetition,” he says. “In my opinion, the first time I wore the outfit [in Rome] was much more memorable and glamorous. ”

As Acton ponders her comments from 35 years ago this week, she admits that she “was probably a little critical” [the suit] didn’t sit as well as it could have been “. Nevertheless, she says the overall impression “from a distance was very strong“.

Oldfield admits that while the suit was “well received”, the jacket had presented him with some challenges. “It was the middle of the 80s and the time was very big [shoulder] Pads and it was always a problem to get them tight in a piece of clothing and these looked like they had somehow slipped. ”

During Diana’s royal life, Oldfield made about 60 outfits for the princess, although many would not have been seen publicly and “for her less formal life, go to concerts, attend school activities with her boys”.

Oldfield recalls that Diana’s “simple manner” enabled him and his then business partner Anita Richardson to “transcend the usual strict formality of dealing with royal ladies.”

Milliner Stephen Jones, who made some of Diana’s iconic berets in the 1980s, says the princess made very deliberate fashion choices. “She loved learning about the messages [clothes] would send, “Jones said of a Zoom call.

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As one of a group of aspiring designers created to create the image of the newlywed princess, Jones watched Diana build her fashion knowledge, which included advice from the Queen herself. “It was the beginning of a whole new adventure … She had a honeymoon and the press had a honeymoon … Those were good times.”

Oldfield agrees that 1985 signaled a big change in Diana’s style. “I would like to think that we have something to do with the fact that she has grown into the icon she has become.”