Speaking Welsh as his first language, Emanuel attended Porthcawl Secondary School where he excelled in music and art.
He went on to study Fashion Design at Harrow School of Art, London (1974–75), where he met Elizabeth Weiner, whom he married in 1976.
They decided to close their ready–to–wear shop in 1979, so that they could concentrate on the couture (custom made) side of the business, and became a favourite designer of Lady Diana Spencer before her marriage.
The dress—seen by over 700 million people worldwide—was made of ivory silk, pure taffeta and antique lace, with 10,000 pearls and sequins, and had a 25 ft train.
[1][2][3][4][5] Of the dress, Lisa Marsh writes in the Fashion Encyclopedia that "Creations by artists from Botticelli to Renoir and Degas were used as influences, as were photographs of some of the more romantic women in history.
The garments seen on Greta Garbo in Camille, Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, and Marlene Dietrich in The Scarlet Empress were all recreated to some degree.
The dress' owners, Madame Tussauds, said that it had been made "in case of any hiccup or disaster", and that it had been tried on by Lady Diana Spencer the morning of her wedding.
As well as allowing them to arrange licensing agreements for items such as perfume, linens and sunglasses, Emanuel's opinion on fashion and trends was often sought and he has been interviewed by the main journalists and talk show hosts in Britain and by some in the United States such as Barbara Walters, Jane Pauley, Merv Griffin and Joan Rivers.
BBC Wales invited Emanuel to be a guest at their 75th Anniversary Concert where he sang three songs in Welsh before an audience of four thousand people.