‘Revenge’ Dress and the Fairy-Tale Wedding Gown: Princess Diana as a Fashion Icon
The Princess of Wales is widely known for her influential style and is referred to as a ‘fashion icon’. Not only was Diana intently charitable with communities in which other royals were not, but she also pushed the boundaries of conventional princess standards. She evolved what it meant to be part of the royal family. As she gained confidence in her fashion sense, Diana unapologetically communicated with the world through the language of clothes, expressing her elegant and intelligent personality. As the 24th anniversary of her death approaches later this month, we’re honouring the Princess’s lush and noble life.
Before her engagement to Prince Charles in February of 1981, formerly Lady Diana Spencer was 19 years old and working as a kindergarten teacher. While photographed in modest cardigans and pleated skirts, the Princess had to start her closet from scratch once entering the royal family. Her first official royal event was her engagement photoshoot and interview, where she wore a Cojana cobalt blue skirt suit with a white blouse, white tights, and black heels. Often referred to as the “whatever love means” interview, that outfit soon became highly noted and regarded as Diana’s early steps into her sense of style.
1981, Engagement photographs of the Prince and Princess of Wales in front of Buckingham Palace
Designed by husband-and-wife David and Elizabeth Emanuel, Princess Diana’s iconic fairy-tale wedding gown is still discussed today. Featuring a 25-foot train, this ivory taffeta dress broke the record of longest train in royal wedding dress history. Including details such as a tiny gold and diamond-encrusted horseshoe sewn into the dress for good luck and stout heels so that the Princess seemed shorter than the Prince, both standing at 5’10”. Completely timeless and infamously wrinkled from the small-scale carriage used for transportation to St. Paul’s Cathedral, this wedding gown is unforgettable internationally.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their wedding day
The original sketch done by Elizabeth
Princess Diana had rapidly become the “People’s Princess” at foreign events and out-of-country royal affairs. Utilizing innovative and purposeful outfits and often working with eveningwear designer Jacques Azagury and fashion designer/muse Catherine Walker, Diana always showed up inappropriate but fashion-forward and confident attire. On her 1991 trip to Pakistan, the Princess visited the Badshahi Mosque in a respectful green Catherine Walker coat dress with a patterned headscarf and sunglasses. Later that evening, she made an impact as a royal ambassador with a pale pink Catherine Walker beaded evening dress. While visiting countries where many people would not have seen a princess in real life, Princess Diana was known to enhance that depiction appropriately.
Princess Diana in her beaded Catherine Walker evening gown in Pakistan 1991
The Princess has often showcased her love of colour-blocking throughout her later life, introducing this theme on her unaccompanied 1992 India trip. Sporting an elegant Catherine Walker design, Diana wore a rich colour-blocked outfit that magnified the heavenly backdrop of the Taj Mahal. Seated on what is now fondly named ‘Lady Di’s Chair’, Diana’s solo figure embodies and foreshadows her loneliness in this epochal image. 1992 encapsulated whispers and mega-media attention of the official separation between Diana and Prince Charles, which was announced just months after this photo was taken.
Diana’s iconic 1992 Taj Mahal photo
Some honourable mentions include her rule-breaking 1995 Jacques Azagury red dress during her visit to Venice. Receiving an absurd amount of worldwide attention for how short her skirt was, the length was extremely high cut by princess standards and was an extremely intentional move by Diana. However, being separated from Prince Charles for 3 years, the Princess had often loosened the reins of the traditional and old-age royal dress code during this time. John Travolta called dancing with the Princess “one of the highlights of [his] life”, this is also included in one of Princess Diana’s attire highlights. Dawning a velvety midnight blue Victor Edelstein gown at the White House’s 1985 state banquet, this dress is considered one of Diana’s defining style moments and displayed at Kensington Palace.
There is no other interest than the ‘revenge’ dress when thinking of royal history’s most iconic fashion moment. Known for dressing with intention and purpose, the Princess was always suited for the occasion with thoroughly planned and well-executed outfits for events. The off-the-shoulder, form-fitting silk black Christina Strombolian dress that Diana had shown up to the Vanity Fairy party was a last-minute decision and had utterly broken all royal dress protocol. Earlier that day, Prince Charles’ tell-all documentary came out in which he admitted his long-term adultery with his current wife, Camilla Parker Bowles. The dress had been sitting in Princess’ closet for three years before it debuted that night in 1994, as Diana previously thought it was “too daring” to wear. Still separated from the Prince but not yet divorced, Princess Diana made a big statement that evening and followed through with her intent to look “like a million dollars”.
Princess Diana, in her custom Christina Strombolian ‘revenge’ dress.
With being an international and generational fashion icon, much of what Princess Diana wore when she was alive has transcended today. Having influenced fashion movements such as athleisure and the bike short, suits over gowns, and sexy and liberating but also self-supporting necklines in the royal family, the Princess of Wales is not only remembered as a charitable person and extremely caring mother but also an influence in the history of fashion.