 | Catherine Walker gained much fame from her designs for Diana's state wardrobe, but the need to tailor outfits to be appropriate for whatever occasion or country Diana needed them, coupled with the fact that their 'wow' factor - luxurious fabrics, glittering beading, sensual draping - tended to garner the most attention, meant that often her own design characteristics could be overshadowed, or even sublimated to Diana's needs. Those characteristics - the use of plain colors such as black, navy, cream, and red, which are enhanced not through the use of printed textiles but with applied decoration such as hand-embroidery, heavy beading, and frogging, as well as the more subtle cutting technique of emphasizing the midriff and waistline - were however essential to her creations. This suit, worn in April of 1989 to the launching of Bike Enterprise, on behalf of the British Lung Foundation, of which Diana was patron,(left) showcases Walker's personal aesthetic. The torso is subtely elongated, the curved front and hem is decidedly feminine, and the grapevine embroidery frames the face while cleverly taking the place of traditional lapels and pockets. (In her autobiography Walker admits she personally disliked the bulky feeling of lapels on jackets). Diana also wore this suit with a white shell later that year, in December, to the opening of the Rodney Porter Ward for AIDS Patients, St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London (right), and to a British Red Cross event in 1989 with the black shell and black earrings
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