Christian Dior, Princess Margaret & Cinderella

The Princess in her Dior ball gown at the Hertford Hospital Charity Ball in Paris, 22 November 1951.

Cover of Vivre et S’habiller, 5 December 1951

On 21 November 1951, at a quarter to eleven in the evening, Princess Margaret ascended the grand staircase of the Hôtel Perrinet de Jars, an 18th century townhouse in the centre of Paris, accompanied by an orchestral rendering of God Save the King. The daughter of King George VI, and sister of the future Queen Elizabeth II, was just 21 years old.

The Princess was the guest of honour at a charity ball organised by the Cercle de L’Union Interallié, the club owning the magnificent premises, in aid of the Paris-based Hertford British Hospital. According to André Lacaze’s article in Paris Match, published on 2 December 1951, the 1,500 invited guests included ‘tous les Anglais de Paris’ and the grandest names of the French aristocracy.

The Princess would have been aware that she was going to be the centre of attention and that her appearance would come under scrutiny. Luckily, she already owned the perfect dress for the occasion. The ‘little white Princess with her diadem and doe-eyes’, as Paris Match described Her Royal Highness, wore a beautiful ball gown made by Dior. Its sweeping lines recall the dress worn by the hero of Disney's Cinderella, released in 1950.

'New Look' satin evening dress, 1948

Designed by Norman Hartnell, an interpretation of Dior's 'New Look'.

Christian Dior had set up his eponymous couture house at the end of 1946 and presented his first show on 12 February 1947. This defilée, and his second show in August, reflected a trend in women’s clothes which had also become apparent in the work of other designers: away from the more box-like, straight lines of the war period to a curvier and more fluid silhouette.

However, in Dior’s hands this evolution was both crystallised and amplified. When Dior first presented what came to be called his New Look, Princess Margaret and her sister Princess Elizabeth were en route to South Africa. Soon after their return, Princess Margaret altered her garments or ordered new ones in line with the new stilhouette with its nipped-in waist and long, ample skirts.

Her first Dior order has not survived but the Princess later nominated it as her ‘favourite dress of all’. The tulle gown with large satin bow at the back was strapless, a feature (or non-feature) that was apparently not deemed suitable for a nineteen-year old. This did not stop Margaret from ordering more French couture. Her relationship with Paris designers, and Dior in particular, contributed to Princess Margaret's emergence as a fashion icon towards the end of the 1940s.

Bodice of the Dior dress

In 1951, the Princess ordered her 21st birthday gown from Dior's ‘Oblique’ line presented in spring that year. The boned bodice is made of silk organza over satin, originally white, but like many gauze-like or net fabrics, it has darkened over time. The shoulder strap arrangement is a compromise: there is only one, which turns into a sash ending in a loop to be worn on the upper right arm, almost as if it had dropped.

The voluminous skirt is composed of seven layers, ingeniously gathered into a 55 cm (22½ inch) waist: an inner tube of silk, three layers of stiffened net and two outer layers of organza with an additional, asymmetric front panel, which like, the bodice, is beautifully embroidered. Christian Dior enquired whether Her Royal Highness felt more like a gold or silver person. She chose gold, which is reflected in the gown’s embroidery in an unexpected way. The main materials used are distinctly dull raffia and sequins made of wood pulp covered in straw. These are, however, supplemented with shiny mother-of-pearl shapes as well as sparkling metal sequins and rhinestones.