Secrets of the Royal Dressmakers: “The Memory Dress” Author Reveals What Goes Into Royals' Iconic Looks (Exclusive)

The author of 'The Last Dress From Paris' shares stories from the dressmakers who worked with Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth and Kate Middleton

To mark the publication of her new novel, The Memory Dress, author Jade Beer is looking back at the behind-the-scenes drama and glamour of the real palace dressmakers.

From the same author as The Last Dress From Paris, the novel centers around a gown once worn by Princess Diana, an elderly woman named Meredith who owns it and her neighbor Jayne who wants to help when Meredith finds herself unable to remember where her husband has gone. It's a story of love, intergenerational friendship and a lovely peek inside the world of royal dressmaking.

But the lives and work of the real dressmakers are just as fascinating as their fictionalized counterparts. Here, Beer shares with PEOPLE some of the stories she's come across in her research and interviews.

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Catherine Walker and Princess Diana

Arguably the most famous and closest working relationship between a major British royal and her dressmaker. The late Walker was fiercely protective of the bond the two formed over 16 years together and hired a PR firm to keep her business out of the press. What started as a call from the Palace in 1981 asking her to make maternity dresses for the Princess — who was then pregnant with Prince William — saw Walker dress Diana for more than 20 foreign tours, designing some of her most iconic looks including the famous ‘Elvis’ dress.

On Diana’s first tour to Australia in March 1983, she ran out of clothes and Walker received a panicked phone call asking for five more outfits. “There was a scanty brief and a timescale of only four days,” Walker said in her book Catherine Walker, An Autobiography by the Private Couturier to Diana, Princess of Wales. “Our principal machinist at the time moved into the workroom over the Easter weekend and slept on a sofa bed ... as I worked at the drawing board.”

It was only after Walker’s breast cancer diagnosis that she allowed anyone else to fit Diana. She herself only measured the Princess three times over all those years.

Related: Princess Diana's Best Looks Replicated on 'The Crown'

Angela Kelly and Queen Elizabeth II

Personal assistant to the Queen until the monarch’s death, Kelly worked on the “dresser’s floor” at Buckingham Palace and oversaw her outfits for more than 300 engagements a year. She managed the “materials room” where archive fabrics are stored, tested for creasing and placed under fans to see how they react to a strong breeze.

She kept detailed “wardrobe diaries” of what the Queen had worn and to where to avoid repetition and would diplomatically brief guests on looks to avoid once the Queen’s outfits were decided.  She knew the Queen’s preferred sleeve length (three quarter or full length, never flared at the wrist), that she favored a two-inch heel, handbags with longer handles and that she wouldn’t wear a hat after 6 p.m.

Kelly oversaw the production of two identical dresses (one for Her Majesty’s stunt double) for the 2012 Olympics as the Queen appeared to skydive into the Olympic stadium with James Bond. Both dresses were never out of storage at the same time, to ensure even the Queen’s family were surprised by the trick.

Related: Queen's Aide Says She Needed a 'Stiff Drink' After Cutting and Styling Monarch's Hair Amid Lockdown

Jenny Packham and The Princess of Wales

Dressing Princess Kate, the future Queen of England, is very different from dressing Hollywood, when pieces are typically sourced from the vintage fashion archives or hot off the catwalk and unseen on another famous body. Not so with Kate, who orders from the current collections before dresses are made bespoke for her. Jenny’s insistence on keeping the entire creative process — including pattern cutting — in-house allows total discretion.

Her private Mayfair basement with its secluded garden beneath the main showroom is where the bridal collections are shown and is ideal for secret meetings. This may explain why Kate has frequently worn looks from Jenny’s wedding collection, most notably the Aspen and Wonder gowns.

Several months can pass between Kate ordering a dress and wearing it – even if it’s been seen on a high-profile celebrity. Wearing the appropriate outfit for a given occasion and time outranks any need to be seen in something first.

Angelina Jolie wore Jenny’s red one shoulder Grecian-style dress in May 2011, before Kate wore a silver version in November the same year. Her pearlescent rose sequin gown from the Spring/Summer 2011 catwalk was worn by Blair Waldorf in an episode of Gossip Girl the same year, before Kate wore it again in 2016.

And keen fashion observers will have noted that the Goldfinger dress Princess Kate wore to the world premiere of No Time To Die in 2021 (and now in the 2023 bridal collection) was similar to the Bruce Oldfield dress Diana wore to the premiere of A View to Kill in 1985.

Related: Kate Middleton's Best Fashion Moments of All Time

Stuart Parvin and Queen Elizabeth II

Parvin designed for the late Queen for over 20 years starting in 2000, when he made her a yellow wool shantung coat and matching shift dress, without ever seeing her measurements. She used a photograph of herself wearing the look as the image sent to members of the public on their wedding anniversaries. “She loved my signature crisp shoulder,” he tells Beer.

Making his first evening gown for the Queen was equally challenging. Parvin was given three weeks to design and make a dress that some designers would need six months to create. “They were missing an evening gown for a state banquet in Jamaica,” he says. The Palace had chosen the fabric, “a powder blue, cobweb embroidered lace, mounted onto silk crepe. It had an asymmetric chiffon drape that concealed the split that enabled her to walk easily. It was on every front page, everywhere around the world and ended up being a very worn dress.”

His designs were always sent to the Queen in full color and were faxed back to him with handwritten notes explaining any changes. “She chose her looks from sketches and not like most people do, from a rail.” Fittings were limited to one two-hour visit to the Palace to finalize four or five looks, which were then tested under different lights to ensure they photographed well. Parvin ordered his fabrics from Joel & Son who are renowned for holding very small amounts of one design, to ensure exclusivity. Nearly all Parvin’s hats were made by Rachel Trevor-Morgan, who would cook up the colors in a saucepan until the precise shade was achieved.

Related: Queen Elizabeth's Hat Maker Shares Why This Year's Royal Ascot Style Change Is 'Cool'

Bruce Oldfield and Princess Diana

“She wanted the glamour that we could give her. And she got it,” wrote Oldfield in his autobiography, Rootless who dressed Diana for 10 years, starting in 1982. Her fittings at Kensington Palace always had to happen when she wasn’t picking the children up from school. “Then she’d give us an hour and a half — long enough for three fittings, a coffee and a chat ... She disliked pomposity and used to call me ‘oily Oldfield’ when I was being particularly ingratiating ... however friendly she was, she never let down the regal front entirely.”

Oldfield made some of her key looks: the blue dress she wore to Prince Harry’s christening, the red and white suit to meet the Reagans at the White House and the red evening dress for the Birthright Ball in 1985.

“She would search the mirror, worried that her shoulder pads were too big or that her skirts were too short ... these anxieties and the restrictions of protocol meant that while she was the most fantastic advertisement for us, there was also something of a double-edged sword about dressing her.”

Related: Queen Camilla's Coronation Dress Designer Shares New Photos of Gown — And Reveals How to See It in Person

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The Memory Dress by Jade Beer is on sale now, wherever books are sold.