Princess Diana's Revenge Dress Was Supposed to Look Completely Different

Wearing the iconic LBD was a last-minute decision.

It’s been almost three decades since Princess Diana coined the term “revenge dress” with an iconic LBD that’s now firmly cemented in fashion lore. As then-Prince Charles admitted he was having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles on national television on June 29, 1994, Princess Di made headlines of her own in the off-the-shoulder dress – a daring sartorial choice for a royal. While Diana’s revenge dress made fashion history, she almost wore a completely different look that night.

The head-turning Christina Stambolian black silk minidress with a chiffon train that Diana ended up wearing to the gala at the Serpentine Gallery had actually been sitting in the princess’s closet unworn for years, the designer said in Claudia Joseph’s 2022 book Diana: A Life in Dresses, The royal had originally planned on wearing a Valentino dress for the occasion, but apparently changed her mind last minute after the designer leaked that she would be wearing his design to the press the day before.

Instead, she turned to the custom hand-stitched minidress she’d gotten designed a few years earlier. The body-con Christina Stambolian number, which featured a sweetheart neckline and ruching on the bodice and skirt, was almost too daring for Princess Diana, who originally thought the design was “a bit risqué,” according to the designer.

“The dress was revealing, quite short and showed quite a bit of leg and flesh. Diana was not sure about it,” Stambolian said. “She wanted everything more covered up, longer and the neck higher.”

Stambolian encouraged her to take a fashion risk–”I told her she had good legs, and she should show them,” she recalled telling the late royal–and also helped change Diana’s mind about playing it safe with the dress’s color.

“'I had black in my mind, but she wanted cream,” she said. “To me, Diana was a black and white sort of person. I didn't like her in the pale pinks and blues with lots of beading.”

Luckily, Princess Diana took Stambolian’s advice, and she made a powerful statement when she wore the number–which media outlets called the “most strategic dress ever worn by a woman in modern times”–at the gala. She paired it with a sparkling sapphire, pearl, and diamond choker, black sheer tights, black heels, and bright red nails – a rarity for the princess, which signified she was ushering in a new sartorial era.

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