Jacques Azagury is not only a famous designer and a friend of Lady Dianabut the man who helped make her a global fashion icon, thanks to his sophisticated creations of elegance. The creator accompanied the princess during the years when her marriage ended before the eyes of the whole world, but where she was ready to send a new message in style.
The one who was then the prince Charles And Diana separated in 1992, and their divorce was pronounced in 1996. It was during these years that the creator of Moroccan origin created for her The Famous Five, A collection of dresses that showed the princess of hearts in a new lightfreer, more determined and more serene. “Before even meeting her, like the rest of the world, I was completely in love with this different crowned head,” says Jacques Azagury.
The creator, now 69 years old, lives in London: after forty years of an honorable career, he decided to retire in 2023 by closing the historic workshop of Knightsbridge where determining moments of Diana life took place. To find out more about the creator’s relationship with Lady Di and the last clothes she wore, we spoke with him.
Vanity Fair. Let’s start with your very first meeting with Lady Diana: what was your first thought when you saw her?
Jacques Azagury. We met for the first time in 1986. I presented my collection at the Hyde Park hotel with a group of other creators, when Anna Harveythen editor -in -chief of Vogue British, presented it to me. I was very nervous, but she immediately put me at ease and we started to discuss. She kept set a dress hooked on my stand. About three weeks later, I received a call from the palace to organize an interview with Diana. She arrived and told me that she wanted to wear the dress she had spotted, made up of black velvet with embroidered blue stars and tiny drops of sequins, with a coral blue organza skirt attached to flared waist. She brought it during her first visit to Italy in 1988, where she was very applauded. The dress was sold at auction last December in Los Angeles for $ 1.3 million.
