Princess Diana remains a style icon to this day, and now travellers can channel the royal’s 1990s style with a reimagining of a special jumper she was often photographed wearing.
Virgin Atlantic has released its first-ever lifestyle range for travellers, with items in the range including a travel tote, flight bag, passport holder and luggage tag in the airline’s signature shade of red. All items may just be the perfect gift for your travel-loving friends. However, arguably one of the most exciting items in the range is a reimagine of the famous Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt gifted to Princess Diana by Sir Richard Branson.
The “Fly Atlantic” sweater, emblazoned with a Virgin Atlantic emblem, was often worn by Princess Diana, coupled with a pair of her iconic cycling shorts, when she was photographed by paparazzi.
According to insiders, the Princess chose to wear the sweater so often in a bid to put photographers off taking yet another photograph of her in the same outfit. Speaking to Harpers Bizarre, ahead of the 2019 auction of the sweatshirt, Princess Diana’s personal trainer, Jenni Rivett explained: “This sweatshirt was given to HRH by Sir Richard Branson.
“It became her most worn top on her regular visits to the gym. She felt there were far more important issues to focus on in the world than her gym attire and therefore decided that wearing the famous Virgin sweatshirt to every session would be a good way to stop the media frenzy.”
The garment eventually sold at auction for over £40,000. Although the new sweatshirt released in the Virgin Atlantic range is not the exact same as the one worn by Princess Diana, the sweatshirts have been heavily inspired by her iconic look.
All jumpers are emblazoned with artwork from the first Virgin Atlantic A330neo aircrafts and travellers can choose between Billie Holiday, Queen of the Skies and Rain Bow all of which are names of Virgin Atlantic planes. The Rain Bow jumper shows the LGBTQ+ icon Oscar, who features on the side of Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Rain Bow’ plane.
The sweatshirts is available to buy in sizes small through to extra large S/M/L/XL, each in two colour ways, for £70. As well as a jumper, Virgin Atlantic has also released a t-shirt range in the same style style.
You can not buy an exact replica of the jumper worn by Princess Diana from Virgin Atlantic, though there are a few unofficial replicas available online if you want to try and recreate her look as closely as possible. For example, a similar style unofficial jumper can be purchased on Amazon for £29.99 or a small business seller on Etsy has recreated their own print sweatshirt similar to Princess Diana’s Virgin merchandise for £15.96.
Other items included in Virgin Atlantic’s official lifestyle range, created in partnership with British designers Fenella Smith and Oliver Co, include a canvas travel tote bag, flight bag, runway-ready pouch, big spender card holder, luggage tag, landing gear travel wallet, and high flier passport holder. Many of the items are made using eco-friendly materials and vegan leather, with the iconic Virgin Atlantic red present throughout the range.
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