Revenge Dress
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The "revenge dress" is an
evening gown An evening gown, evening dress or gown is a long dress usually worn at formal occasions. The drop ranges from Ballerina skirt, ballerina (mid-calf to just above the ankles), Tea length, tea (above the ankles), to Skirt length, full-length. S ...
worn by
Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...
, to a 1994 dinner at the
Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...
in
Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Pa ...
. The garment has been interpreted as having been worn by Diana "in revenge" for the televised admission of adultery by her husband
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...
, then
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
.


Design

The dress, an off-the-shoulder black
silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
evening gown An evening gown, evening dress or gown is a long dress usually worn at formal occasions. The drop ranges from Ballerina skirt, ballerina (mid-calf to just above the ankles), Tea length, tea (above the ankles), to Skirt length, full-length. S ...
, was designed by Christina Stambolian. Stambolian compared Diana's choice of black to the black swan Odile in
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
's ballet ''
Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...
'', saying that Diana "chose not to play the scene like Odette, innocent in white. She played it like Odile. She was clearly angry." Diana had owned the dress for three years before she wore it, fearing it was "too daring". The dress cost . Diana had planned to wear a dress by Valentino before choosing Stambolian's design. Anna Harvey, Diana's former stylist, said that Diana "wanted to look a million dollars... and she did".


History

Diana wore the dress to a 29 June 1994 fundraising dinner hosted by '' Vanity Fair'' magazine for the
Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...
in
Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Pa ...
. Diana had declined the dinner invitation; however, two days prior to the dinner, following several days' publicity of Charles's infidelity revelations, she accepted the invitation. A television programme about her husband Prince Charles was broadcast, in which he admitted to having been unfaithful to her after their marriage had "irretrievably broken down". Charles and Diana had separated two years prior to the broadcast of the programme. Diana's biographer Sarah Bradford wrote that Diana "feigned indifference" in regards to the programme. Diana was seen wearing the dress after she exited her car and was greeted by Lord Palumbo, the chair of the trustees of the Serpentine Gallery, before entering the gallery. The photographer who captured Diana arriving at the event, Tim Graham, said that her arrival lasted only 30 seconds in total, and that Diana would have known a large number of photographers would be present following her husband's revelations. Palumbo later recalled that Diana "bounded out of the car in that wonderfully athletic way that she had". Following the dinner, the dress was described as the "I'll Show You dress", the "Serpentine Cocktail" and the "Vengeance dress", as well as the "Revenge dress". In her 2007 book ''The Diana Chronicles'', Tina Brown wrote that Diana's dress was known by fashion editors as "her fuck-you dress". The dress was sold at auction in July 1997 for £39,098 to a Scottish couple who planned to use it to raise money for children's charities. The dress was exhibited in the Museum of Style in Newbridge,
County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...
in their 2017 exhibition ''Diana: A Fashion Legacy'', where it was described as "the most important exhibit". Penny Goldstone wrote in ''
Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' (stylized in all lowercase; ) is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on women aro ...
'' in 2020 that the dress remains one of Diana's "most iconic styles of all time".


Aftermath

The day following the event, ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' wrote:
The Princess of Wales did not have to dine out before the television cameras at the Serpentine Gallery last night in order to avoid seeing her husband sharing his soul with the nation on the box. She could have watched a video, played bridge or simply washed her hair and curled up in bed... It's amazing what some people will do to avoid press speculation.
Elle Pithers, writing for '' Vogue'' magazine, described the dress as the "progenitor of 'revenge dressing. In 2020, writing for ''The Daily Telegraph'' Bethan Holt stated that the dress encompassed "the act of reclaiming the narrative", and was the "ultimate modern example of revenge dressing", in an article about women who have found inspiration in Diana Spencer's choice of the dress. Holt wrote, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But also: fashion hath no greater thrill than when being deployed for the purpose of expressing rage, froideur or an insouciant dose of 'look what you're missing. The dress was analysed by Caroline McCauley in ''Fashion, Agency, and Empowerment: Performing Agency, Following Script'', and it was interpreted as part of Diana's couture of "revenge" following the breakdown of her marriage to Charles after years of having "snippets of a seductive glamour hidden by a proper royal purity". Caroline McCauley wrote that instead of "cowering in shame" following Charles's admission, "Diana arrived in a figure-hugging black silk dress with a pearl choker necklace, black pumps, and scarlet lipstick and nail polish". Georgina Howell, in her 1998 book ''Diana, Her Life in Fashion'', wrote that the dress was "possibly the most strategic dress ever worn by a woman in modern times", further describing it as a "devastating wisp of black chiffon" with which Diana "flipped her husband clean off the front pages" following the broadcast of the programme. "The Thrilla He Left to Woo Camilla" was the headline of ''
The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...
'' the following day.


See also

* Travolta dress * Wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer * List of individual dresses


References

{{Diana, Princess of Wales 1994 clothing 1994 in London Diana, Princess of Wales Revenge British royal attire Royal dresses Black dresses