- \n
- August 31st marks the 28th anniversary of Princess Diana\u2019s passing<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- Renae Plant, curator of the Princess Diana Museum, has preserved more than 2,700 of Diana\u2019s artifacts in a virtual museum<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- Earlier this year, Plant won a $520,000 auction for Diana\u2019s \u201cCaring Dress,\u201d a dress she wore often with speacial meaning to Plant<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
- Royal commentator Meredith Constant says Diana\u2019s lasting impact comes from people seeing themselves reflected in her<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cIncredible,\u201d Plant said as she examines it while wearing white gloves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Plant, the gown is more than couture. It\u2019s a piece of living history. And nearly three decades after her untimely death in Paris, Princess Diana\u2019s influence still shines as brightly as the gowns she once wore.<\/p>\n
The Australian-born curator of the Princess Diana Museum\u2019s connection to Diana began as a schoolgirl.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 12 years old the first time I met Diana, and she came straight out of the ginger factory, and I just looked up and she was just standing right there, and I was speechless for the very first time in my life,\u201d Plant laughs. \u201cShe shook my hand, and I was just, \u201cOh my gosh\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n
That day, Plant picked up a tiny clay platypus the princess had dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went over to the police and I said, \u2018Lady Di dropped this\u2019. And the policeman looked at me, looked at my hand and closed my hand. He said, \u2018She must have dropped it to give it to you.\u2019 And so that little platypus is kind of what got me started,\u201d Plant said. \u201cThirty-five years later. I never in a million years would have thought that I\u2019m on the destiny that I\u2019m on right now, preserving her life and legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Renae_dress_by_Rae_Williams_2025.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nRenae Plant. (Photo courtesy Renae Plant)<\/p>\n
That chance encounter inspired what would become a lifelong mission. Plant has since collected thousands of items \u2014 everything from the famous black sheep sweater to handwritten letters \u2014 now showcased inside a 14-gallery virtual museum that allows anyone, anywhere, to explore Diana\u2019s world. She even sought approval from Diana\u2019s sons before launching the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did write to Prince William and Harry to, you know, let them know that that was my intention to really preserve all of her pieces,\u201d Plant said.\u00a0\u201cThey wrote back saying they gave me their blessing, which I would not have done what I\u2019m doing if I didn\u2019t get that letter from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Plant secured one of the most personal treasures yet \u2014Diana\u2019s \u201cCaring Dress\u201d, a bright, colorful dress she often wore around children, which sold for $520,000 at auction. It was the same gown Diana wore during a 1988 visit to Sydney, when Plant met her for a second time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to preserve that dress which represents her kindness, her compassion,\u201d she said. \u201cIt represents exactly what we\u2019re doing with the museum. So I just felt like that piece was meant to find its true home again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the collection, Plant has co-written a new book with Richard Dalton, Diana\u2019s longtime hairdresser. \u201cIt\u2019s All About the Hair: My Decade with Diana\u201c traces the life of the Princess through her iconic fashion and hairstyles, and uses QR codes to connect readers directly to items in the museum, creating what Plant calls an \u201cinteractive repository\u201d of stories and style.<\/p>\n
For Meredith Constant, a royal media commentator, fashion is just a piece of Diana\u2019s continued hold on the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what captivates people about Diana is that she can both be seen as a victim to the institution and the way she was treated, and the way her divorce played out with Charles in the media, and also as a sympathetic figure,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think that watching her start to triumph, to leave the royal family, to get out on her own, I think a lot of people can relate to that story, even though she was a princess. I think particularly for Americans, though, I think we really love that bucking of tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
That fascination extends to the monarchy itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of it is the Disney-fication of monarchy, and our idea of what it means to be a princess. And for some, that is the ultimate fantasy. So being able to see people live it out, and especially when you look at Kate Middleton, now the Princess of Wales, or Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, I think it fulfills a fantasy that a lot of us have.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as younger generations discover Diana through documentaries, TikTok trends, and The Crown, Constant says her influence won\u2019t fade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think she is going to continue to be a figure who fascinates people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plant agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill to this day, she\u2019s the most, you know, iconic, humanitarian, kind person the world ever saw.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renae Plant carefully lifts a flowing cream gown embroidered with shimmering falcons.\u00a0 The dress is the one Princess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[134490,134487,7709,557,7730,7731,77,609,1760,12,134488,7710,519,134489,51682],"class_list":{"0":"post-387922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-app-arts-entertainment","9":"tag-app-human-interest","10":"tag-british-royal-family","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-charles","13":"tag-charles-iii","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-human-interest","16":"tag-king-charles","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-rae-williams","19":"tag-royal-families","20":"tag-royal-family","21":"tag-socal-what-you-need-to-know","22":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115125776758180986","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}