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Diana, Princess of Wales’s most iconic style moments

Diana, Princess of Wales was well-known all over the world and not just for being a member of the Royal Family. Her famous dresses and outfits gained the attention of many people all over the world. Although she had to follow royal etiquette, Diana also followed her own fashion rules and made a name for herself in the fashion world.

On what would have been her 57th birthday, I take a look back at some of Diana, Princess of Wales’s most iconic looks.

The Wedding dress:

Diana’s wedding dress is probably her most iconic style moment. For her marriage to the Prince of Wales in 1981, then Diana Spencer wore a British-woven silk dress with dramatic puffy sleeves, featuring a hefty 25-foot train. She collaborated on her gown with British designers David and Elizabeth Emmanuel. According to the duos book, A Dress for Diana, they got the Princess to try on sample dresses over her jeans.

Jon Haupt/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The John Travolta dress:

In 1985, Diana, Princess of Wales showed off her fun side by dancing with Grease’s John Travolta at a White House dinner held by President Reagan. The dress was a velvet navy off-the-shoulder number by Victor Edelstein who apparently based the design on Edwardian evening gowns. The elegant dress was sold for £240,000 at auction after her death.

The ‘Elvis’ dress:

Diana, Princess of Wales wore a Catherine Walker pearl-encrusted gown on a tour of Hong Kong. The dress famously had a high collar which was inspired by Elizabethan ruffs, but the media decided to give it a nickname everyone would be familiar with: the Elvis dress. Diana apparently loved the dress so much that she wore it again shortly after to the British Fashion Awards.

The ‘Revenge’ Dress’:

Arguably more well-known than her wedding dress, Diana, Princess of Wales wore a plunging little black dress to the Serpentine Gallery summer party in 1994. Designed by Christine Stambolian, Diana wore the daring figure-hugging dress the same night a documentary aired about the Prince of Wales. In the documentary, he confessed to having an affair with the Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall. This is how the name of the ‘Revenge Dress’ came about, and after all these years, it has stuck.

The Angola landmines outfit:

Diana’s most iconic outfits aren’t all dresses: in 1997, just a few months before her death, she wore a sleeveless chambray shirt and trim chinos during a visit to an Angola hospital. Whilst in Angola, the Princess visited an active landmine site, and the photo took over the world’s media.