She had custody of her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, for most of July, and brought them along on her travels during that time. But in August, the boys went with Charles to Scotland for their customary holiday with the Windsors at Balmoral Castle.
While William and Harry were away, Diana planned to see friends. She and Rosa Monckton, a close confidant, enjoyed a cruise around Greece in mid-August. But it was her later plan to visit Italy which did not come to fruition.
The year prior, Diana had struck up a friendship with a South African woman named Lana Marks, the founder of an eponymous handbag and accessories line known for its use of exotic leathers. The women were introduced by another mutual friend, Lucia Flecha de Lima, at a fundraiser in Washington, DC, in September 1996.
“Diana was next to Anna Wintour on the one side and Ralph Lauren on the other,” Marks said in a 2017 interview with Heritage Auctions. “I told her how beautiful her dress was, and she told me how scratchy it was inside—it hadn’t been finished—and how she was having to control herself, not to wriggle.”
Marks wrote her phone number on a piece of napkin, and a fast friendship formed over the following months.
The new friends stayed in touch, relying on phone calls and letters when in different locations, as their relationship grew stronger. Diana wore belts and bags from the Lana Marks collection, and Marks even designed a small carryall in the Princess’s honor. The Diana bag was created to be “statuesque,” like its inspiration. “I made it a long bag, rather than a wide bag, because she was tall and slim,” Marks told Heritage Auctions.
