Any good romcom devotee knows the iconic scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts's character, Vivian Ward, is refused service at an exclusive Beverly Hills boutique. Vivian, dressed in a short, revealing outfit, leaves in humiliation—but the next day, after Richard Gere helps her with a shopping spree—she comes back in a full designer outfit and gives the shop assistant a taste of her own medicine. It's hard to imagine this ever happening to Princess Diana, but she, too, was once dismissed from a London boutique when an employee "didn't recognize" the future Princess of Wales.
Lady Diana Spencer was running out of time to find an outfit for her engagement announcement to Prince Charles, and turned to Bellville Sassoon's London studio for help. Author Claudia Joseph, author of Diana: A Life in Dresses, told the "Royally Us" podcast (via the Express), Diana's "mother knew the designer David Sassoon who worked for Bellville too, so she went in by herself one Friday evening and the shop assistant didn't recognize her."
