The Unexpected Character in Season Six of ‘The Crown’? Princess Diana’s Swimsuits

The entirety of part one of season six of Netflix’s The Crown is set in the summer of 1997, and most of it is set aboard a superyacht belonging to the Fayed family, where Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, if the show is to be believed, fell in love; at minimum, there was a flirtation and an attraction. We are aware of the characters of Diana, Dodi, then-Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth, so on and so forth—but a character in the first half of season six that we weren’t necessarily expecting to play such a prominent role? Diana’s swimsuits.

Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Diana, is in a swimsuit for a great many of her scenes this season, and each seem to have an interesting backstory, per Vulture. Take, for example, her leopard print one-piece; juxtaposed with her maternal instinct—to protect her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, against the ever-present and invasive paparazzi—the print took on a deeper meaning. 

“We knew it would be very sparse when you see her with the kids,” said Alex Gabassi, who directed episode one. “We needed to put as much of that love out there as possible.”

Of the moment where Diana—clad in the leopard print one-piece—interfaces with the paparazzi for the sake of William, who is made uncomfortable by their presence, “We needed to strike a balance between her taking care of the kids and sacrificing herself by going out with the swimsuit,” Gabassi said. “She was giving them [the paparazzi] what they needed in order to be left in peace.” She is a mother figure, almost animalistic, to protect her children; this scene, where Diana confronts the paparazzi, spurred a minor disagreement between Gabassi as director and Debicki as Diana: “I remember asking Elizabeth, ‘Could you pose a little bit at the end of the scene?’ And she said, ‘Do you think it’s right? I’m not sure about that.’ I responded, ‘There’s something incredibly attractive and yet dangerous in the way that you’re given all that attention.’ When she goes in and she knows these guys, she talks to them and calls them by their names and there’s a kind of camaraderie. You think to yourself, Oh, they might be friends. These guys are quite nice. At that moment, I think Diana was enticed by the idea of playing a figure that everybody loves.”

Of the leopard suit, “The swimsuit is the new ball gown,” costume designer Sid Roberts said. Vulture reports that her team got in touch with Gottex, the Israeli company that made several of Diana’s swimsuits that summer—including the leopard one—and they agreed to collaborate on this season of The Crown. “Its leopard print leans into Diana’s animalistic strengths. It plays up to a safari. I love that the swimsuit was for this moment because she’s in the wild, if you like, and she’s literally being hunted by photographers.” 

Another featured swimsuit was Diana’s pink floral ensemble, which was freeing for Roberts, Vulture reports, as she was given free rein in remaking the swimsuit (which wasn’t by Gottex). “It was our time to play,” she said. “I closed my eyes and thought, What do you remember about that swimsuit? What’s the essence? It’s a pink hue and there’s a real vibrancy. This is her second holiday with Dodi, so they’re flirting. There has to be a kind of sexiness to all the stuff she wears.” Roberts ultimately created eight versions of the suit before she felt she properly translated the original, in terms of the colors and scale of the flowers.

And then, the swimsuit of all swimsuits: the blue one-piece Diana wore as she sat deep in thought on the side of the superyacht. (“Despite the appearance of a diving board, the plank is, in fact, a landing jetty,” Vulture reports.) “Everything that’s known as an image we tried to re-create as faithfully as we could within the constraints of taste, decency, and copyright,” said set designer Alison Harvey. The moment was intended to be captured as forlorn and melancholy.

And The Crown absolutely knew it had to get the blue swimsuit right. It was so important that Roberts ranks it in the top three Diana silhouettes of the entire series, after her wedding dress and the infamous black revenge dress. “I love the trajectory of those three silhouettes because it’s like the chrysalis of a butterfly,” she said. “We knew we had to do the blue swimsuit since the moment was so iconic and has the same significance in our story.” 

Roberts’ main priority in re-creating the one-piece was capturing its unique color “because it’s this beautiful block of blue amongst her and the seas,” she said. She also considered Debicki’s tall frame; Diana was also tall, standing at 5’10’’. “It’s vulnerable for an actor to go out on a diving board in just a swimsuit,” Roberts said. “The ‘90s was very unforgiving in how high it was cut on the thigh and the hip. A lot of that for us was working out where Elizabeth would be comfortable.”

The Crown is rooted in fact but is also a theatrical production; while committed to accuracy, it is, after all, still entertainment. While the events of the summer of 1997 in Diana’s life—right down to her swimsuits—were ample starting points, “we’re not making a documentary,” Harvey told Vulture. “You have to make it your own.”