Mornings were a tough call when I worked as a news reporter on the Evening Standard back in the 80s. We had to be in the office at seven, ready to get cracking on the biggest news stories of the day soon after. Those were the days when Princess Diana was constantly splashed across the tabloid front pages – dancing onstage with Wayne Sleep as a birthday surprise for Prince Charles, dressing up as a policewoman for Fergie’s hen night and taking Prince William to his Notting Hill nursery school for the first time.
My most vivid memories are from Charles and Diana’s Middle East tour of 1986. As the royal couple progressed through Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, they both looked utterly miserable, though at that stage even seasoned royal-watchers didn’t realise the rot had set in. Most of us simply assumed the tour was too long and gruelling, that Diana was missing her sons and that once you’ve seen one falconry display in the desert you’ve probably seen them all.
But I digress. The reason I started thinking about those far-flung times was after reading the sad news that Catherine Walker has died after a long battle with breast cancer. The French-born fashion designer created some of Princess Diana’s most exquisite outfits, including an amazing pearl and sequin-encrusted white silk evening gown and matching bolero jacket that Diana called her “Elvis dress.” She also designed the black dress Diana was buried in, which the princess had bought shortly before her death.
When she started her business Catherine Walker modestly called it The Chelsea Design Company. She renamed it Catherine Walker & Co in 1994 but apparently she chose the original name because “in France you would be laughed at if you opened a shop and put your name on the door as a couturier, unless you had the obvious skill to back it up.”
Sitting on the top deck of the number 49 bus every morning as I travelled from Battersea to Fleet Street I used to gaze down at Catherine Walker’s simple, white-painted shop in Chelsea’s Sydney Street and marvel at her designs. I dreamed of buying one of her dresses and one day I threw caution to the wind and actually did. I saved up my work expenses for weeks, keeping them in a battered envelope till I had enough. Then, clutching the envelope in my hand I went in and bought a stunning navy dress, made of crepe and and cut on the bias. The most embarrassing moment came when I had to pay. I opened up my battered envelope and handed the surprised shop assistant £375 in grubby-looking notes.
Twenty years on, I don’t regret my rash purchase for a minute. The dress hasn’t dated at all and I still wear it sometimes. And I take an awful lot of pleasure in the elegant Catherine Walker for The Chelsea Design Company label inside.
