How Diana made swimsuits sexyÂ

How Diana made swimsuits sexy 

To look at photographs of Diana in swimsuits and bikinis on holiday beaches is to be struck once again by how far ahead of the times she was. 

In the sun, openly swimming, exercising, playing around, laughing and flexing her sensationally long legs, this was a whole other side of Diana: the side that made her look and feel young, happy and healthy. Indeed, she personifies the athletic, ‘real-body’ physique that has become today’s ideal. 

Diana Spencer was a sporty schoolgirl. She won swimming and diving cups, played tennis and adored ballet, as photos of her in a leotard and pointe shoes in the garden at Althorp show. 

Flexible: Sporty Diana shows off her lithe legs in Barbuda in 1997

Stylish: Diana suns herself in a patterned bikini in Italy in 1991 (left) and a bold orange two-piece on Nevis Island in 1993

When she grew up and married, those interests stayed with her. In the late Eighties, she’d swim 20 lengths every morning, often in the Buckingham Palace pool. She worked out with a trainer, first at the BiMAL sports therapy gym in Chiswick, West London, in the mid to late-Eighties, and later at the Chelsea Harbour Club, where her daily regimen involved lifting weights. 

The many summer holiday pictures show Diana in her swimsuits, stunningly  at ease with the way she looked on beaches and yachts. 

On that last cruise with Dodi Fayed, she surely must have been aware of the cameras. 

As the world watched her striking balletic poses, performing high dives off the deck and stretching ele gantly along the side of the boat, she perhaps consciously posed, creating the super-toned images that have now passed into history. 

Whatever she intended by them, they’re sensational.

How two-pieces became one

Make no mistake, Diana had an extensive beachwear wardrobe. 

Cameras had been banned during her honeymoon with Charles on the Royal Yacht Britannia, but from the mid-Eighties onwards, the paparazzi snapped her on beaches and boats â€" in the Caribbean in winter and the Mediterranean in summer. 

Bronzed: Diana stands out in a colourful two-piece on holiday in France with Charles in 1985 (left) and a bikini in Spain in 1990

Diana during a trip to the beach in the Nineties

She did wear bikinis â€" especially in the early years holidaying with Prince Charles â€" most of which were picked up from Benetton. But after she was intrusively photographed in a two-piece while five months pregnant with William, she turned her focus to one-pieces. 

In the mid-Nineties, she was often spotted striding through Caribbean surf in sophisticated black swimsuits with lace or sheer detail, many of which were designed by U.S. swimwear brand Jantzen. 

Confident and dynamic, the look was just as sexy as any bikini Diana had previously worn. 

Woman behind her swimwear 

Diana met her number-one swimsuit expert, June Kenton, owner of Rigby & Peller, the only luxury lin gerie and swimwear brand with a royal warrant, at the BiMAL gym in the early Eighties.

‘It was a small, quiet, private gym â€" and we became really good friends,’ remembers June, now 81. 

Diana took to visiting Rigby & Peller in Hans Road, opposite Harrods. ‘She’d call me and say: “Are you going to be at headquarters?” 

‘She was our fashion icon. Everybody copied her. 

Show-stopping swimsuits: Diana catches the eye in an array of sensational one-pieces in bold patterns and colours aboard Dodi Fayed’s yacht in August 1997

Effortless: As well as bold brights, Diana favoured chic black swimsuits with sexy lace and sheer panels, worn here on Nevis Island in 1993

‘She was beautiful, gorgeous and sweet, but she just wanted to be normal â€" I think she was jealous of anyone who had an ordinary life.’ 

When Diana mentioned to her that she was off on a summer cruise with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in 1997, June swung into organisation mode, calling Lea Gottlieb, owner of the Israeli luxury swimwear company Gottex.

‘I told her that Diana wanted to come to the London Gottex showroom, so Lea dropped everything and flew straight over from Tel Aviv herself,’ she recalls. 

The array of animal print, ombre-patterned and colour-blocked one-pieces Diana picked out for that final holiday were couture-made specially for her.

‘The swimsuits were made-to-measure. Diana had a long body, so Lea made them longer, and she had sarongs and bags to match,’ remembers June.

‘To me, in all the photographs of her walking around on that yacht, she just looks incredible.’ 

What size she was, though, Mrs Kenton is not about to reveal. ‘You could put me in front of a firing squad and I’d never tell you that.’ 

THE QUEEN OF CO-ORDINATION 

Diana was queen of co-ordination â€" and her beach outfits were no exception.

Her ocelot-print one-piece and sarong (left), worn when holidaying on Richard Branson’s Necker Island with William and Harry in 1990, came from U.S. company Jantzen and quickly sparked a craze for jungle-themed prints.

Later, she bought matching sarongs from Gottex (right), which covered her tummy and, in effect, turned her swimsuit into an elegant, figure-hugging mini-dress.

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