Princess Diana had secret second wedding dress

Diana, Princess of Wales had a secret second wedding dress made by her designer in case the original was stolen or damaged in the run up to her big day back in 1981.

Princess Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales had a secret second wedding dress made in case the original was stolen or damaged in the run up to her big day.

The late royal walked down the aisle at St Paul's Cathedral in London on July 29 1981 to marry Charles, Prince of Wales - now King Charles - in a lavish gown designed by husband and wife duo Elizabeth and David Emanuel and the dress was made from ivory silk taffeta with lace, sequins and 10,000 pearls as well as a 25-foot train.

Now Elizabeth Emanuel has revealed she actually designed a second dress for Diana in case anything happened to the original. She told PEOPLE in a video posted on YouTube: "I was a bit neurotic at the time of the making of the royal wedding dress, and I thought: 'What happens if somebody breaks in and steals the dress or something spills or there’s a fire or it gets stolen?'

"I wanted to be prepared for any emergency and we set about making this other dress. Not exactly like the royal wedding dress because to try and recreate that would have just taken too long ... "

Elizabeth used part of a pattern for a pink dress she'd made for Diana for a pre-wedding ball and adapted it into a new wedding dress. However, the princess had no idea her designers were busy working on a spare.

Elizabeth added: "Diana never knew that we were making this spare. I didn't want to worry her. We never showed it to her, we never talked about it. It was a complete secret."

The second dress was totally different to the dress Diana wore for her wedding, with slim sleeves in a brighter white colour and without the lengthy train, but it did have the same sequin and pearl patterns seen on the royal wedding dress that was used.

Elizabeth revealed the dress is now "just gone" because it was unfinished and never used and she suspects it ended up "on some sample rail somewhere".