Lady Kitty Spencer's wedding dress featured a sweet nod to Princess Diana

Lady Kitty Spencer at Royal Ascott

Princess Diana's wedding dress is one of the most iconic dresses in the world, with many still trying to emulate it 40 years later, and members of the public still flocking to see it on display at Kensington Palace.

So it's unsurprising why the late princess' niece, Lady Kitty Spencer, would want to reference it when it came to her own wedding day last month.

Lady Kitty – whose father is Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's brother – wed fashion mogul Michael Lewis in a stunning ceremony in Frascati, Italy on 24th July.

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The model actually wore five separate dresses on her big day (all five of which were custom Dolce & Gabbana), but it was the one that she wore for her walk down the aisle that featured several sweet nods to her late aunt Princess Diana.

Spencer is a global ambassador for Dolce & Gabbana, so it only makes sense that the Italian fashion house would be her first choice when it came to designing a wedding dress. (Or five.)

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For the actual ceremony, Spencer opted for a bespoke, high-necked, Victorian-inspired gown that was imbued with subtle details paying tribute to Diana's 1981 David and Elizabeth Emanuel gown.

While there were several key differences between the two Spencer women's dresses – most notably, Kitty's choice of all-over lace, which drew comparisons to the bodice of Kate Middleton's wedding dress – the two shared several details including puffed sleeves and statement trains.

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The dress' designers, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, didn't comment on whether Kitty's thoughtful references to her late aunt were conscious choices, or whether she's just been lucky enough to inherit Princess Diana's iconic sense of style, but they did open up to Tatler about some of the dress' more explicit inspirations.

"One of the inspirations is definitely her love for Italy," Dolce said. "Kitty is in love with our beautiful country and its rich history, art and culture."

Gabbana chimed in, "But she is also a girl who is very attached to her origins, to England; to her heritage of the great Victorian era. And like all the English people, she has a great passion for all kinds of flowers."

Swoon.

Kate McCusker

Kate McCusker is a freelance writer at Marie Claire UK, having joined the team in 2019. She studied fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins, and her byline has also appeared in Dezeen, British Vogue, The Times and woman&home. In no particular order, her big loves are: design, good fiction, bad reality shows and the risible interiors of celebrity houses.