Are people reminiscing about Diana as Charles crowned King? Memorabilia at auction and music references

Last weekend felt like a fever dream when King Charles was crowned as the new monarch in Westminster Abbey before gracing the Buckingham Palace balcony as his late mother did 70 years prior.

As we do with most large-scale occasions be it weddings, funerals or in this case coronations, we think of those who could not be with us including that of Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Diana, Princess of Wales to name a few.

Fans of the royal family perhaps contemplated the absence of Diana the most over the long bank holiday weekend, reminiscing about the life of the ‘People’s Princess’ and potentially what could have been had it not been for the heart breaking day in 1997.

Camping out on either side of The Mall, did fans wonder what Diana would have worn to the event accounting for her chic and forward-thinking style, had it been her sat in the Diamond Jubilee State Carriage?

Diana’s memory is omnipresent due to the love and interest from people all over the world and with King Charles’ coronation, her presence has been even more significant.

Over the past few months, numerous items that once belonged to Diana have been put up for auction with fans hopeful to purchase something that this ‘Goddess-like’ figure had once worn, touched or used - providing yet another window into the soul of the lady who used to appear on every newspaper’s front cover.

A cheeky side to Diana was unveiled on Monday when some humorous postcards containing sexual innuendos were put up for auction at Dominic Winter Auctioneers between £3,000 and £5,000 apiece.

PeopleWorld also noted that personal letters written by Diana to friends including Susie and Tarek Kassem were sold for nearly £90,000 as the recipients thought “owning the documents [was] a great responsibility.”

In addition, a strapless purple Victor Edelstein dress that Diana wore for a royal portrait in 1991 went for half a million pounds at Sotheby’s while Kim Kardashian became the owner of the Attallah Cross necklace which was once part of Diana’s wardrobe too.

The ‘Crown Jewel’ so to speak of Diana’s collection that was also made available for the public to bid for was an earring and necklace combination, designed by the late Princess of Wales for when she wore it to the British National Ballet’s performance of Swan Lake in what turned out to be one of her final appearances.

From Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake to SZA and Ice Spice, as hip hop artists have found they can keep Diana’s memory alive through the art of music, which the Princess of Wales reportedly loved so much.

SZA made a deliberate reference to Princess Diana on the cover of her latest album ‘SOS’ by emulating a photograph taken of Diana in Portofino, Italy in 1997 where she sits alone on a diving board over the ocean.

The hip-hop music artist stated that ‘she liked how isolated Diana appeared in the photo and wanted to convey a similar feeling in her album art’.

While SZA paid tribute to Diana through images, Ice Spice mentioned Diana by name in her song with Nicki Minaj, as she leant into the label that she is ‘Bronx’s answer to Princess Diana’ through her acts of kindness and philanthropy.

Speaking about the label, Ice Spice told Billboard: “I saw all of my supporters being like, ‘She’s the People’s Princess! She’s Princess Diana!’ At first, I was confused. I was like, ‘Um, Princess Diana? Out of everybody?’ But [then] I was like, ‘F*** it, she’s iconic.’”

Therefore, as Diana’s ‘iconic’ memory continues to live on on both sides of the pond nearly 26 years later, there is no doubt fans would have spared a thought thinking about whether the People’s Princess could have ever been the People’s Queen.