Princess Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ steals spotlight as royal feud reignites

Princess Diana’s appearance in the so-called revenge dress in 1994 was widely seen as a show of strength amid her husband’s affair.

LONDON – Princess Diana’s “revenge dress” went on display in London on Sept 18, days after new claims about King Charles’s reaction to her death, as the shadow cast over the royal family by the so-called people’s princess lingers nearly 30 years on.

The dress became a symbol of the rancour between Charles and Diana during the public breakdown of their marriage in the early 1990s, when she made a public appearance in the off-the-shoulder black silk number soon after Charles admitted his infidelity.

This week, scrutiny of their troubled relationship has resurfaced, thanks to extracts published in a forthcoming book by Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, who accuses the king of being “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath of her death.

Buckingham Palace have hit back at the claims, suggesting that the author’s memory has been affected by his loss.

The dress was unveiled in Sotheby’s, its first stop on a world tour that will take it to Hong Kong, Geneva and New York, underlining Diana’s enduring and global allure.

It will be auctioned at its last stop in December, with a guide price of between US$150,000 (S$191,000) and US$300,000.

Her appearance in it in 1994 was widely seen as a show of strength as the public feasted on details of the royal couple’s separation, an interest that has come back strongly this week.

Humiliated by her husband’s affair with Camilla, whom he went on to marry in 2005, Diana opted for an outfit that she had in her wardrobe for years but had previously seen as too daring.

“We can imagine it’s a night where she had to decide, ‘Whether I go, and what do I wear?’” Morgane Halimi, global head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby’s, said.

The “revenge dress” worn by Princess Diana is handled by a technician at Sotheby’s in London.

“So, she decided to wear something that would make her look the most beautiful, the most powerful,” Halimi added. “It’s about being self-assured, being empowered, and not only the negative part of the revenge, but really this is my life and I stand up for myself.”

As crowds came in to see it on Sept 18, Spencer’s claims dominated newspaper front pages, airwaves and pub talk in Britain, showing the challenge faced by the 77-year-old king who will never quite shrug off his role in a toxic marriage blamed for damaging the hugely popular Diana.

“Everybody liked her, so her story will never die,” Merete Lund Jensen, a 54-year-old paediatric nurse said.

As well as her sense of style, Diana was known for the easy affection she showed when meeting homeless people, children in hospital or AIDS patients, a natural warmth which contrasted with the more formal approach of Charles.

Diana was 36 when she was killed in 1997 in a car crash in Paris, leaving Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, without a mother. She and Charles finalised their divorce a year earlier.

At the time, Diana’s death plunged the monarchy into crisis. The stiff upper lip shown by the royal family was so at odds with the outpouring of grief across the country, that it caused widespread public anger, forcing the institution to change tack and begin to show emotion expected by the public.

But the allegations from Spencer that the king was “giddily elated” over her death have been rejected in unusually strong terms from Buckingham Palace.

Spencer’s claims come at a tricky time for the king, who continues treatment for cancer, while trying to repair the relationship with his semi-estranged son, Harry, and navigate the fallout from the arrest of his younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The book, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail and will be published on Sept 22, claims Charles said about Diana, “We’ll forget her soon enough”.

Her brother writes: “Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Sept 16: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”

Royal commentator Afua Hagan said Buckingham Palace’s reaction showed that 29 years after Diana’s death the royal family continued to be out of touch with how well-loved she continues to be.

“I do think it was quite cold, quite aloof, and that kind of harks back to what people said about the royal family in those days after Princess Diana died. It’s definitely not a good look,” she said. REUTERS