A New Elizabethan

A New Elizabethan

BBC Radio 4 collated a list of people that they feel have been the most influential in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The person from the list who I have chosen as someone who I see as being very influential is Diana Princess of Wales. This is because she became a fashion and style icon with people all over Britain trying to copy her style of clothes, hair and make-up.  Princess Diana became a role model for many women as she exuded grace and elegance in her public appearances. People also admired her caring nature as she did a lot of work with charities, especially childrens charities and helping to raise awareness of problems through her presence at charitable projects and her fund raising. Therefore she helped to improve the quality of many peoples lives. In a similar way Queen Elizabeth I wanted to be seen as devoting her life to her country and people and making their lives better,  Princess Diana became known as the peoples princess because of the admiration the public had for her and many people looked up to Queen Elizabeth I and had miniatures of her portrait as people had memorabilia from the wedding of Princess Diana to Prince Charles,

I Have chosen this image on Princess Diana in her wedding dress because it’s appearance was so highly anticipated by people at the time and after Princess Diana wore this dress wedding dress designers copied the style as women wanted to have the same style as Princess Diana on their own wedding days. In Elizabethan times people especilly those of the upper class would copy the style of Queen Elizabeth I. In the Photograph Princess Diana is sat down low to the ground which is not the most common pose for royals to be positioned in for official photographs however I think this represents the way people saw her as being down to earth. The public saw Princess Diana as being different to other royals as Queen Elizabeth I was different to her predecessors. The position she is in is very relaxed which probably reflects how she was feeling at the time with her wedding that was watched by millions going smoothly and now being newly married. The Elizabethan era is so influential in terms of style in todays society with many fashion designers and film director using Elizabethan influences. In a similar way Princess Diana was so influential during her life and still today is remembered for always being well presented with good cloths, hair and make-up. Princess Diana made sure she looked her best on her wedding day as Queen Elizabeth I always made sure she was seen by the public in the way she wanted to be by only allowing certain portraits of her to be used and today women want to look their best on their wedding days and choose which photographs are seen by others. The make-up Princess Diana wears is subtle and uses softer tones of the colours she was known to wear, letting her natural beauty be highlighted. The pale skin with blush on the lips and cheeks is very similar to the ideas of Elizabethan make-up and then with the darker eye make-up exaggerating the eyes the look has more modern influences.