Princess Diana's dresses go on display at Kensington Palace

(20 Mar 2012) A 12 MILLION TRANSFORMATION FOR KENSINGTON PALACE
One of the Uk's lesser-known Royal abodes, Kensington Palace, is about to reoopen its doors to the public.
The palace has undergone a �12 million renovation to tie in with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year.
"For us the real event of 2012 is the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics come later," explained Natasha Woollard, Visitor Experience Manager at Kensington Palace on Tuesday (20 MAR. 2012).
"But yes we really wanted to celebrate that. It's been about five years in the planning this project so today is a really exciting day and when we open to the public on Monday 26th March we just can't wait to get open again."
"Kensington Palace, I don't think many people thought it was open actually before so one of the parts of the project has been to really open up the palace to the park," Woollard continued.
"So all those tens of millions of people who walk up and down the broadwalk and Kensington Gardens every year will be able to see quite clearly that Kensington is open. And yes I think it's a fantastic job that the modern royals are doing to really put London on the map in this Olympic year and also you might catch a glimpse of them if you come here."
The renovation work has included extensive landscaping to the palace gardens and a ten-room "Victoria Revealed" exhibition, which uses over 300 items, coupled with quotes from private journals, to give insight into the life of Queen Victoria.
A temporary exhibition, "Diana: Glimpses of a modern princess," also showcases five of Diana's dresses.
They include the black silk taffeta Emanuel gown worn on the Princess' first official engagement with the Prince of Wales (to Goldsmiths' Hall, London, for a fundraising event in aid of the Royal Opera House), the ivory silk crepe Catherine Walker number which she wore for her iconic shoot by Mario Testino, and a black ribbed shift by Gianna Versace, worn to the London premiere of "Apollo 13."
"Of course Princess Diana is probably the most famous resident from the history of Kensington Palace," Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces commented.
"We have a new display of her dresses, beautiful dresses, five of them. Three of them have never been seen before and they tell the story of the evolution of her style. The earliest one, 1981, it's quite frilly it's quite fancy, she's a sloane ranger, and then you see her turning into, 1995, a slick sophisticated international style icon wearing Versace."
"Diana: Glimpses of a modern princess" will be open to the public from 26th March to 2nd September 2012.

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