Living: Shy Di Makes a Daring Debut

The Queen-to-be's glamorous new image leaves Britain gasping

Spiking the stale beer of Britons' discontent—deepening recession, wallet-walloping new taxes—came a tulip glass of bubbly named Di. When blond, blue-eyed, 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer made her first formal appearance last week as the fiancée of the Prince of Wales, she left the island gasping. Attending a benefit recital at the Goldsmiths' Hall —close to St. Paul's Cathedral, where the royal couple will be married July 29—the Queen-to-be stepped out in a strapless, black silk-taffeta evening gown that radiated a wolf-whistle glamour not associated with Britain's ruling ladies for generations. (But certainly in the tradition of England's first Princess of Wales, the fair wife of Edward, the Black Prince. Holding forth in English-ruled Bordeaux in the 1360s, the Princess scandalized a local lord with her "luxurious trimmings and low-cut bodices.") It was clear from the decolletage that the gown was not a couturier's illusion. Lady Di filled it to overflowing. Said one observer: "I thought she was going to take a deep breath and fall out of it."

LADY DI TAKES THE PLUNGE, punned a Daily Mirror headline. DI THE DARING, exclaimed the Sun, which ran one picture of her on the front page and three more inside. The Daily Express said flatly that "a crowd of 200 gasped" as Lady Di stepped out of her limo. Even the Times of London permitted itself a slight whimsicality. When Prince Charles ascends the throne, mused Columnist Alan Hamilton, "the royal couple will be known as the King and Di." Writer Jean Rook of the Daily Express complimented Diana "for putting on a bold, beautiful front, and for turning her cold, bare shoulders on the traditional, covered-up royal evening dress." Added Rook: "Her Gone With the Wind dress is high, young fashion. It takes courage, and a lot more, to uphold it. And sitting through an evening in that tight, boned bodice takes guts, because, unless you stay upright and regal, the bones stick like fish knives into your midriff. All Di must learn to watch, which the TV cameras noticed, is the ounce or two of puppy fat which boned bodices tuck under a girl's arms. But you can't have too much of as good a thing as Lady Diana."

It is not that Prince Charles' chosen would qualify for a Charlie's Angels sexpot role. At 5 ft. 10 in. (Charles is 5 ft. 11 in.), she is a blooming English rose, with a bounteous figure, shapely legs (as a back-lighted photograph of her in a Diaphanous dress showed clearly a few months ago), large luminous eyes, a sweet smile and the velvety skin and hair of a 19-year-old. Those qualities, plus her blushing innocence and aristocratic reserve, are what made her sexy, sophisticated debut such a stunner.