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Does anyone else think that Diana's jewelry was tacky?

J

Jambalaya

Ideal_Rock
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Oct 2, 2014
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I was thinking about the royals because of Meghan's wedding coming up. There's a thread online about Diana's jewelry. www.dianasjewels.net.

It got me thinking...although she did have some beautiful pieces, a lot of what she used to wear was absolutely enormous. There was that sapphire oval choker - the oval was HUGE and the choker consisted of many, many rows of pearls. I just think it looked like something plastic

Then there was all the massive faux jewelry she had.

I just think much of it wasn't very befitting of her position. IMO, she displayed quite a lack of taste for someone in such a senior royal position.

I have also got to like bigger pieces as I've gotten older, but there's big and then there's ridiculously large, even for the Eighties. We're used to thinking of Diana as such a style icon, but looking back, I'm surprised at how gaudy her taste was:

Diana 1.jpg Diana2.jpg Diana3.jpg Diana4.jpg Diana6.jpg Diana7.jpg Diana9.jpg
 
The tiara pic above - I love the Spencer tiara, but look at the sheer size of those pearl earrings! They're like wrecking balls!
 
It's not that these aquamarine earrings don't look fab, but my goodness, they're just so big!
Diana 10.jpg
 
This cross is real - it was a loan from Garrard's, according to the website. Reminds me of a rapper!
Diana10.jpg
 
I remember reading that Diana picked her engagement ring from a tray sent by the jeweller because it was the largest, but it wasn't really to her taste. I was never fond of it personally.

I agree, even for the time she wore large pieces and especially many of her earrings most definitely weren't to my taste, perhaps she went a bit overboard even for the eighties! I remember wearing huge plastic earrings and diamante galore out clubbing, it wasn't the most tasteful decade!:lol:

I still miss shoulder pads though.:(
 
One man's tat is another man's treasure I guess! It's only my opinion - I personally wouldn't wear such colossal pieces but she did wear them well. She was very tall so perhaps they looked more proportionate in person. It's just a little surprising to me because I always read that the british upper classes are supposed to be very reserved, low-key, and not supposed to be into conspicuous consumption - but perhaps that's wrong.

No, it definitely wasn't the most tasteful decade - except for the pop music, which was great!
 
You can still wear shoulder pads, if you like them!

I'm also not find of Kate's e-ring. It's just way too large IMO - but if she likes it, that's all that matters!
 
It was the eighties, like @Lorelei said. We all wore big jewelry!
And she was lucky enough that her big pieces were the real thing, not costume, like the rest of us.
 
If i could rock a rapper cross you best believe I'd be all over that. I mean if Flavor Flav can wear an enormous clock around his neck then why not a blinged out cross? ;)2
 
I think she wore what was in vogue at the time, and she looked great in them. Timeless - maybe not all of it, but really, what Royal jewels aren't over-the-top?

Frankly, there is a LOT of jewelry posted on this forum which isn't to my taste, but I'm not the one wearing it.
 
A clock round your neck! Ha, ha, ha!

I thought that royal ladies had to dress a certain restrained way...but I gues not! Kate has worn some pretty huge earrings too, since her marriage, come to think of it. Once you have access to unlimited funds, perhaps you just go crazy with the jewels. I wonder how many of us here would do the same in their shoes!

I was interested to read on the website linked above that Diana often wore costume jewelry. An example is a pair of fake yellow goldtone "pearl" drop earrings that were apparently from the met museum in NYC. The museum store still sells them and I looked them up online. https://store.metmuseum.org/venus-earrings-09019308

They're not even nice fakes - the yellow is very gaudy. Whyyyy would you wear those when you have so much money..whyyyy? As a jewelry-lover, I have my metaphorical head in my hands when I look at that Dianasjewels website!

However, I do like the sapphire and diamond suite that an Eastern royal family gave her, and her two tiaras. Her emerald suite was also stunning. Kate seems to have got the sapphires. I wonder if Meghan will get some emeralds?

It's interesting to wonder how Diana's style would have evolved had she lived. Today's styles are much more pared-down than the eighties and nineties, of course.
 
Also...I can't wait to see which royal tiara Meghan wears (if she wears one)! :appl:
 
I think her jewelry reflected the times. She wore it all very well, we all wore HIGH heels, short skirts, fluffy hair. She is an icon.
 
I did the short skirts and BIG hair, but I don't remember the heels. Not where I lived, anyway. Today's heels seem very high to me. I'm thinking Kate's skyscraper heels on top of the platforms.
 
I dont think her jewelry was tacky at all...I did assume it was all REAL...I mean she was royalty! I think it was typical of the time frame and with the
exception of the cross thing it all look suitable and nice. You have to remember that she was a biggish girl so I think petite items would not look right
on her.

I seriously think that someone should have told her to think twice about the cross though!:cheeky:
 
Yes, she had an athletic frame and she did wear the items well. Just looking back, I was thinking, "Whoa, those are some big pieces!" I probably couldn't carry them off.

According to the website, the cross was just a loan!
 
Hmm I remember walking around IBM in the 80s with the business outfits that had short skirts and looong jackets.. and spikes.. I've never worn them since!

Todays heels make my spikes look like training heels.

:) :wavey:

Jambalaya said:
I did the short skirts and BIG hair, but I don't remember the heels. Not where I lived, anyway. Today's heels seem very high to me. I'm thinking Kate's skyscraper heels on top of the platforms.
Click to expand...
 
All I remember from the 80s were hugh shoulder pads...hell, you needed big jewelry to offset those things!
 
She looked great in every piece. Not many can pull that off.
 
I think some of the pics in the original post were not the most flattering. I loved her look! Kate has been criticized for NOT wearing more of the loaned jewels from the queen. I think she has worn bigger bling in recent years. Check out the Royal Jewels thread in “Jewelry Pieces!” It will take days and days and weeks and weeks to read it all.... fun way to pass the time. :)
 
The cross looks like something she borrowed from the Archbishop of Canterbury! Altho, since her at-the-time husband will one day be head of the Church of England, perhaps she *did* borrow it from the archbishop!
To be honest, the cross and the high collar look very Mary-Queen-of-Scots to me; I wonder if she was visiting someone or somewhere for whom this was appropriate? I'm guessing so.
 
Wow you picked out some stinkers above, but keep in mind for every one piece she wore that was horrible she probably wore another two that were magnificent. I remember her for all the magnificent pieces not the blaaah ones. And I agree with the others it was the 80s big jewellery, big hair and an obscene level of being ostentatious was just how it was.
 
A lot of pieces of Royal jewellery have been gifts over the years from other heads of state. It would’ve been considered very rude not to be seen wearing them, especially if you were visiting the country the gift came from. People expect to see Royals wearing things that they could only dream of.

I didn’t like her engagement ring at all, and I read that she had a choice of very large diamonds, but chose it because it was something different.

I also wonder if, because large crowds turned out to see her, large jewellery made her more visible?
 
Towards the end of her life her wardrobe became quite pared down. I remember the stunning blue sheath dress she wore on an evening out in Australia. The comment about the dress was that it took a lot of personality to wear a dress that simple. That is maybe the point - she had the personality to carry off whatever she wore and whatever jewelry accompanied it.
 
I think it was just fashionable at the time, and honestly I think most 80's fashion was hideously tacky... :confused2: She probably could have stuck with the real deal though (I certainly would if I were Royalty!).
 
I was about to comment with the same thing many people have said - "It was the 80s" :mrgreen2:
 
I don’t think it was tacky. It was the 80s, it was normal, and she was a royal.
 
Even in the 80’s, I have to admit that I thought wearing her necklaces as a headband was a bit much. But to be fair, it was considered the height of vogue at the time. Huge hair, wildly bright makeup, tacky headpieces, shoulder pads, and huge flashy jewelry was in until grunge came along.
 
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