Queen Camilla Carries a Lady Dior Bag for Two Days In a Row This Week—A Handbag That Was Literally Named for Princess Diana

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published July 11, 2024

Not everyone can say they’ve had a fashion house name a handbag after them, but not everyone is Princess Diana, either. One such bag—the Lady Dior—was named in Diana’s honor by, of course, Dior, and Diana was first seen carrying the piece in September 1995, when the then Princess of Wales attended an event in Paris with the never-before-seen design hanging from her arm. From then until the end of her life in August 1997, it was a staple in Diana’s wardrobe, including at Diana’s first (and, sadly, only) Met Gala, which she attended in December 1996.

Princess Diana and the Lady Dior bag — Diana carrying the bag in a 1995 visit to Liverpool.

The bag was originally called the “Chouchou” and was given to Diana by France’s former First Lady Bernadette Chirac, and the bag “instantly became her favorite, so much so she wore it day and night, and bought several Diors at Harrods upon her return to London,” Tatler writes. The bag has dual top handles, a boxy shape, and Dior’s signature Cannage quilting, inspired by the rattan chairs used in early couture shows. Diana was photographed with the accessory so frequently the bag was renamed the “Lady” in her honor in 1996; before she married into the royal family, Diana was Lady Diana Spencer.

The bag has legions of fans worldwide—including, now, a rather controversial one: none other than Queen Camilla has been seen sporting the bag for the first time this week, carrying a taupe Lady Dior bag yesterday at Wimbledon, and again today for a visit to Wales, per Page Six.

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This is, of course, a bit controversial, considering the bag was named for Diana—the woman who, lest we forget, was the wife of then Prince Charles, the man Camilla had an extramarital affair with for years before Charles and Camilla’s respective divorces in the 1990s and their eventual marriage in 2005. We’ve come a long way since then—but, Your Royal Highness, were there no other bags you could carry this week? As Page Six put it, “the Queen’s choice to carry a bag that was quite literally named after Princess Diana ruffled a few royal fans’ feathers.”

“The style became synonymous with the late Princess of Wales over the years, making the bag a surprising choice for King Charles III’s new wife,” Page Six writes. (Well, “new” is a relative term, we suppose—they’ve been married for over 19 years.)

Though this is the first known time Camilla has carried the Lady Dior, Camilla has shown her affinity for the house lately; she wore an elegant navy cape dress by the French fashion house while at a royal banquet in Versailles last September, and she wore Dior to Royal Ascot in both 2023 and 2024.

Queen Camilla at Versailles — Camilla has lately shown an affinity for Dior, but the Lady Dior may be a bridge too far for some.

Camilla isn’t the only modern woman in the royal family to carry the Lady Dior, either. Meghan Markle wore Dior’s updated D-Lite version in a no-longer-offered black iteration back in 2021.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.