Sarah Burton reveals how she kept fashion's biggest secret: Kate Middleton's wedding dress

By Deborah Arthurs


Designer Sarah Burton managed to keep her involvement with the creation of Kate's ivory lace and silk dress a secret from her closest friends and family until the eve of the event


It was the best kept secret the fashion world had ever known. The mystery shrouding the identity of Kate Middleton's wedding dress was maintained right up until the moment the Duchess-to-be stepped out of her hotel on her way to Westminster Abbey.

And now the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress designer has revealed that the project was so closely guarded, even her parents were unaware that she was working on the royal wedding dress.

So keen was Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton to disguise her involvement with the creation of the dress that she informed no one but a small group of colleagues who would work with her on the design.


The ivory and lace gown was highly praised worldwide, a triumph for Burton who had only recently taken over as design head of the design house following the death of Alexander McQueen.

Speaking about the commission to Vogue magazine, Burton, 37, said she was pleased she had been able to maintain the mystery.

'It was so great to actually keep a secret, especially in this day and age when everyone talks about everything,' she told the magazine.

Burton's parents, Anthony and Diane Heard, only found out on the eve of the ceremony that their daughter had landed one of the design world's most coveted commissions.

The first glimpse they were afforded of their daughter's handiwork was from the lens of a periscope, from their place in the crowds on the Mall.

Burton's confidentiality agreement from Buckingham Palace had prevented her from telling them ahead of the Royal couple's wedding eve.

Burton's challenge was long and drawn out. 'Because my core team knew, it was okay for me to disappear and come back, then disappear again,' she said in the interview.

Sarah Burton, left, says she feared she would never fill the shoes of designer Alexander McQueen, right, who tragically took his own life in 2009. 'I could finish his sentences but I didn't know that I could begin anything, and that terrified me'


'But I remember other people asking me, "Are you coming in on Friday?" And I'd say, "Oh, yeah, see you in the morning." I'd be scheduling meetings knowing full well I wasn't going to be there for them,' she told Vogue.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art was preparing to open an Alexander McQueen retrospective soon after the royal wedding and Burton was able to use that as cover for the occasions where she had to miss appointments.

Burton's cover was as good as blown when a figure widely considered to be Sarah Burton arrived at Belgravia's Goring Hotel - where the Middletons were staying on the eve of the wedding - her face hidden beneath the furry hood of a parka coat that was last seen on the Alexander McQueen catwalk.

Speculation that Sarah Burton was behind the design of Kate's dress reached fever pitch when a figure wearing an Alexander McQueen hat entered the Goring hotel where Kate was staying on the eve of the wedding

Still, no details were confirmed, and when the designer arrived to accompany Kate to Westminster Abbey to make adjustments to her nine-foot train, the world was still on tenterhooks, desperate for details of the dress.

'I remember standing in Westminster Abbey thinking, 'This is unreal'. It was like a fairy tale. And all I could think was, 'I hope I don't trip over'. I didn't realise the enormity of it until much nearer the wedding day. It was a magical experience,' Burton says of the moment.

Burton, who took over as head of Alexander McQueen in February, said she feared she would never be able follow in the footsteps of McQueen himself.

'I definitely considered not taking this job. I was at such a loss, he was such a huge part of my life, my every day. I could finish his sentences but I didn't know that I could begin anything, and that terrified me,' she said, adding that her success at the house seems to be a 'gift' from McQueen.

'Out of such terrible, tragic times and from under this dark cloud came that dress.'



source:dailymail