When thinking about Princess Diana’s most iconic fashion moments, most people immediately think of the gown that’s known as her “revenge dress” — the slinky black evening gown that Diana wore to an event the same night that then-Prince Charles confessed to cheating on her with Camilla. But long before that night, Diana had worn a different revenge dress while she was out with Charles, and even back then, she still stole the show.
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Diana chose the stunning look for her first royal engagement.
During her engagement to King Charles — then Prince Charles — Diana joined him at a concert to raise funds for London’s Royal Opera House. The year was 1981, and Diana was just 19 years old. And as Vogue reported, that night, she chose to wear a black strapless gown designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the same designers who would eventually create her iconic wedding dress.
Before she was officially a royal, she was already breaking protocol.
Not only was the gown nowhere near as conservative as the royal dress code had been up until this point, but it had also been unheard of for a woman in the royal family to wear black if they weren’t in mourning.
But Diana has never been one to follow the rules, and even before she and Charles tied the knot, that much was clear.
She totally stole the show.
After showing up in that dress, Diana was all anyone could talk about — something that Charles didn’t seem to think too kindly of, as the New York Times reported back then.
“Prince Charles, all but forgotten for the moment, seemed amused by the interest in his fiancée’s attire,” said the New York Times story about the event, noted Vogue. “After escorting her past a crush of photographers, he called back, ‘Have all the fashion writers finished?’”
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Diana knew she'd be making a splash.
“I remember my first [royal] engagement so well,” she told biographer Andrew Morton of that night. “So excited. Black dress from the Emanuels and I thought it was OK because girls my age wore this dress. I hadn’t appreciated that I was now seen as a royal lady, although I’d only got a ring on my finger as opposed to two rings … It was a horrendous occasion.”
One of the designers spoke to Vogue about the dress.
“It felt so different to anything she’d worn before,” Elizabeth Emanuel told Vogue. “She looked so grown up, like a movie star, and she loved the idea of breaking the mold.”
That would only be the first time she’d steal the spotlight with her fashion, especially while pushing boundaries with what she was wearing, but not the last.
