Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer has won a legal battle against a Cheshire funeral director - who claimed he owned her company.

Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the dress for the 1981 royal wedding, said she had no formal business arrangement with Mike Cooper, head of Avalon Funeral Plans.

Ms Emanuel said she was approached by Mr Cooper about an investment in her new fashion company Art of Being, and her collection Little Black Dress. Ms Emanuel claimed she had financed the collection alone, after the pair disagreed.

Mr Cooper claimed he owned the Art Of Being brand plus everything in her studio, including her archives.

The case, which began in 2010, centred on whether a formal agreement had been reached between the two parties.

Ms Emanuel lost a previous legal battle after a disagreement with investors, where she lost the right to use her own name on her fashion collections.

Today she said: “I am relieved that this awful situation has finally been resolved and that justice had been done. I already lost my name once and I wasn’t going to let go of it the second time without a fight.”

Mr Cooper has been ordered to pay costs.