David Emanuel

David Emanuel (born 17 November 1952) is a Welsh fashion designer who designed, with his wife, Elizabeth, the wedding dress worn by Lady Diana Spencer at her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.

He participated in the British reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2013 and came runner-up to Westlife singer Kian Egan.

He is the host and creative director of the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress: UK and its spin-off Say Yes to the VEGAS Dress, which sees him in Las Vegas dealing with last minute brides and grooms.

Early years Born and brought up in Bridgend in Glamorgan, South Wales. Speaking Welsh as his first language, Emanuel attended Porthcawl Secondary School where he excelled in music and art. He became head choir boy at his local church, sang in the County Youth Choir, played violin in the County Youth Orchestra and taught himself to play the cello. He was accepted by the Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff, but chose to study design at Cardiff School of Art and Design (1972–75). He went on to study Fashion Design at Harrow School of Art, London (1974–75), where he met Elizabeth Weiner, whom he married in 1976. David and Elizabeth Emanuel studied design together at the Royal College of Art, London (1976–77), the only married couple the College has accepted.

Career Emanuel worked for two seasons as an assistant to royal designer Hardy Amies at Savile Row and, aged 25, he launched his own fashion house, Emanuel, in 1977, working in partnership with his wife Elizabeth, with whom he had two children—Oliver and Eloise. They decided to close their ready–to–wear shop in 1979, so that they could concentrate on the couture (custom made) side of the business, and became a favourite designer of Lady Diana Spencer before her marriage. In 1981, the Emanuels were chosen to design the wedding dress worn by Diana. The dress—seen by more than 700 million people worldwide—was made of ivory silk, pure taffeta and antique lace, with 10,000 pearls and sequins, and had a 25 ft train. Of the dress, Lisa Marsh writes in the Fashion Encyclopedia that "Creations by artists from Botticelli to Renoir and Degas were used as influences, as were photographs of some of the more romantic women in history. The garments seen on Greta Garbo in Camille, Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, and Marlene Dietrich in The Scarlet Empress were all recreated to some degree."

A copy of Diana's wedding dress made by Emanuel sold at auction in 2005 for £100,000, twice the original estimate. There was some controversy surrounding the auction. The dress's owners, Madame Tussauds, said that it had been made "in case of any hiccup or disaster", and that it had been tried on by Lady Diana Spencer the morning of her wedding. David Emanuel was quoted by the Western Mail, saying "To say it is a direct replica is untrue. There is no such thing. We did not make one. Diana categorically never tried this dress on, on her wedding day or at any other time, and to my knowledge never even saw it. It wasn't even made to her exact measurements, and we, of course, are the only ones who would know that." The copy of Diana's dress had been given to Madame Tussauds after the wedding in 1981 and was placed on display.

Emanuel has dressed some of the world's most famous women: Dame Shirley Bassey, Shakira Caine, Dame Joan Collins, Faye Dunaway, Lesley Garrett, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Patsy Kensit, Madonna, Jane Seymour, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Ivana Trump and Sophie Ward. The Emanuels opened "The Emanuel Shop" in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London, in 1987 and sold collections at Harrods and Harvey Nichols in London, and at Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus in New York. Following his divorce from Elizabeth in 1990, Emanuel established the "David Emanuel Couture" label, offering his clients a personal service from his private suite at the Lanesborough Hotel in Knightsbridge, London.

Cookery programmes marked a departure from fashion for Emanuel. He hosted the Out to Lunch series, in which he cooked for celebrity guests, and Cooking with David Emanuel, lunch at his home in Windsor, Berkshire and Ladies Who Lunch—a chat show over lunch. He also writes a weekly "Style" column in the Western Mail, the national newspaper of Wales.

A fluent speaker of Welsh, Emanuel hosted the BBC Two programme on the National Eisteddfod of Wales . As a guest of Peter Karrie on The Peter Karrie Show, Emanuel sang The Queen of Disguise, before being interviewed with one of his clients, the actress Joan Collins. BBC Wales invited Emanuel to be a guest at its 75th Anniversary Concert, where he sang three songs in Welsh before an audience of four thousand people.