It was at Highgrove on 18 July 1997 that Prince Charles hosted a £30,000 party for Camilla Parker Bowles to celebrate his future Queen’s 50th birthday.
The glittering celebration and Camilla’s birthday a day earlier would have been greeted with enthusiasm by the press, had not the mischievous Princess Diana been determined to push her former rival off the front pages.
Guests including novelist Jilly Cooper and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg sipped champagne on the lawn while a clarinettist played jazz music, before enjoying a five-course dinner in the luxurious 120ft marquee.
But Diana became the centre of attention when she caused a sensation in the Mediterranean, where she was on holiday with her sons, Princes William and Harry.
Wearing a leopard-print swimsuit, the Princess, who was with her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed at her father’s villa in the south of France, was photographed by the paparazzi deliberately frolicking in the sea on July 17, 1997.
So when Camilla woke up the next morning, the day of her party, she was greeted with the headline: “Dear Camilla. This will keep you off the front page. Happy birthday and best wishes for your bosom. Love, Diana.”
On July 17, 1997, Camilla Parker Bowles’ 50th birthday, Princess Diana was photographed wearing a leopard-print swimsuit while on holiday with her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed at her father’s villa in the South of France.
The day after Diana’s swimsuit appearance, Camilla Parker Bowles enjoyed the lavish £30,000 party Prince Charles threw for her at Highgrove. Above: Camilla arrives at the celebrations accompanied by her sister’s husband Simon Elliot on July 18, 1997
Princess Diana was accompanied on holiday in France by her sons, Princes William and Harry (above)
Diana’s salvo was the last in the battle between the divorced Diana and her ex-husband, known as the War of the Waleses.
It was meant to be one of her last public appearances: just six weeks later, she and Dodi died in a car accident in Paris.
But photographs of her in a series of stunning Gottex swimsuits have endured.
Costume designers Amy Roberts and Sidonie Roberts went so far as to ask the swimwear brand to recreate them for actress Elizabeth Debicki to wear in the Netflix hit The Crown.
“We thought, ‘Why don’t we go and see?'” Sidonie said recently.
“They were great and made them for us. We did tests so Elizabeth would feel comfortable too.”
It is not known where Diana purchased the swimsuits. The late Queen’s corsetier June Kenton, who was a friend of the princess, claimed in her book Storm In AD Cup that Diana had bought them from her shop Rigby & Peller.
“Diana had a spectacular figure,” he wrote. “She ordered a few swimsuits from Gottex, the Israeli designer, and some matching bathing suits and beach bags.”
‘I recognised the swimsuits in the photos of her on that last, fateful yacht trip with Dodi Fayed.’
But last summer, in the run-up to the final season of The Crown, Gottex claimed on Instagram: ‘Diana’s outfit was made especially for her following a meeting between the Princess and Mrs Lea Gottlieb, the first lady of Israeli fashion and founder of Gottex.’
Either way, the extraordinary story of the Jewish designer, nicknamed the “Queen of Israeli Fashion,” must have resonated with Diana, known as the “Queen of Hearts.”
Mohammed Al Fayed’s house in Saint Tropez, where Diana and the children stayed in July 1997
The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki costume designers visited Gottex and recreated the swimsuits for the Netflix show
The marquee set up at Highgrove for Camilla’s 50th birthday party
Not only did she and her husband Armin, who spent World War II in a labour camp, survive the war, but they built a multinational company after selling their wedding ring to raise money and borrowing a sewing machine.
Born in Sajószentpéter, Hungary, in 1918, Mrs. Gottlieb was raised by an impoverished aunt.
His plans to study chemistry at the University of Budapest were thwarted by quotas imposed on Jews studying at academic institutions.
Instead, she worked as an accountant in a raincoat factory, where she met her husband, who ran the family business. They had two daughters, Miriam and Judith.
But when Hungary was occupied by the Wehrmacht in 1944, Armin was sent to a labour camp and she and her daughters had to survive the war alone.
At checkpoints, where she alternated between Sajószentpéter and Budapest, she hid her head in bouquets of flowers to avoid being recognized. At one point, seeing a Nazi with a gun, she and her children hid in a ditch.
The late Queen’s cosetrieur, June Kenton, who was a friend of the Princess, claimed in her book Storm In AD Cup that Diana had purchased Gottext swimsuits from her shop Rigby & Peller.
Last summer, ahead of the final season of The Crown, Gottex claimed on Instagram: “Diana’s dress was specially made for her after a meeting between the Princess and Mrs. Lea Gottlieb, the First Lady of Israeli Fashion and founder of Gottex.” Above: Lea Gottlieb during a fashion show in New York in 1988
After surviving the war, the family emigrated to Haifa, Israel, in 1949. She later recalled: “We arrived with nothing, no money, nowhere to live. The first two or three years were very, very hard.”
The couple borrowed money from family and friends and opened a raincoat factory in Jaffa, but switched to swimwear when they “saw no rain, only sunshine”.
His inspiration came from the earth: “the turquoise of the Mediterranean, the golden yellow of the desert sand, the blue of the Sea of Galilee, the pink of the stone of Jerusalem and the many shades of green of Galilee.”
By the time Diana wore its swimsuits, the company had turned over $60 million and had dressed everyone from Spain’s Queen Sofia and Elizabeth Taylor to Brooke Shields and Nancy Kissinger.
When she died at her home in Tel Aviv in 2012, aged 94, the Israeli Education Centre in her adopted country described her as the “Queen of Israeli Fashion.” A title well deserved.
