Paul Costelloe, personal designer to Princess Diana, dies aged 80

Irish fashion designer Paul Costelloe, the personal designer of the late Princess Diana and a fixture at London Fashion Week for 40 years, has died at the age of 80, his family said.

Costelloe was appointed Diana’s personal designer in 1983, shortly after she founded her own label, Paul Costelloe Collections, and the collaboration continued until her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

Costelloe, who oversees the development of all his collections from his central London studio, was invited to show at the city’s premier catwalk event in its inaugural year in 1984, and was there in September to present his latest spring-summer creations.

The man died peacefully in London with his wife and seven children after a short illness, the family said on Saturday.

Costelloe was born in Dublin in 1945; He trained there first at Paris’s prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture before moving to another fashion capital, Milan, where he worked as designer of luxury department store La Rinascente.

He established his own brand for a while in New York before settling in London, where his partnership with Princess Diana developed.

Today’s collections include women’s clothing, men’s clothing, bags, homewares and jewelry.

“Paul has led an extraordinary life for decades as a leading figure in Irish, UK and international fashion and business. He has built a hugely successful business through incredible talent, discipline and an unwavering commitment to quality,” Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris said in a statement.

“His was and still is a very remarkable Irish success story.”