It’s December 9, 1996 and designers and their muses are gathering at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to honor the work of Christian Dior – the focus of the latest fashion exhibit and accompanying gala. Calvin Klein and Christy Turlington make a photogenic duo, while Christian Lacroix and Iman show off their pairing of corduroy, crystals and corsetry. Linda Evangelista arrives in a dangerously low scoop-neck gown, accompanied by her then love interest Kyle MacLachlan, and it’s all smiles from Amber Valletta as she walks along the famous staircase. Then, somewhere in the crowd, there’s Princess Diana.
The royal made a discreet entrance, accompanied by her friend Liz Tilberis, while wearing her most un-royal look to date. Princess Diana’s silk John Galliano for Dior slip dress, with its lace negligee trim and matching dressing-gown style robe, was aeons away from the Diana who once charmed the world with her sheep jumper, and showed that the recent divorcee was enjoying a new era of her life undisturbed from Kensington Palace protocol.
It wasn’t just the lingerie detailing that shouted “liberation!”, but the fact that the royal had chosen to commission Galliano, the fashion industry’s then extremely romantic creative, to make her a special version of a midnight-blue gown from his first collection for the house. If that didn’t score her big fashion points, the Dior Lady Di bag – originally named the Chouchou and renamed in her honor – dangling from her wrist, along with acres of diamond bracelets, certainly did. The princess was reportedly worried about what her 14-year-old son, Prince William, might make of his mother in red-carpet fashion, but the headlines were no less amazing than those created by the Christina Stambolian “revenge dress” Diana wore to the Serpentine Summer Party in 1994. Despite her step back from the spotlight, everyone still wanted to get a glimpse of Princess Diana.
Far from using fashion’s biggest night to further her own agenda, the royal understood the power of her personal image to promote a good cause. Just as she had thrown her weight behind London Fashion Week and the British Fashion Awards previously, raising awareness for the Met Costume Institute fundraiser was a gift she could bestow with an incredible dress and a seven-strand pearl choker. Will modern-day royals ever follow in her footsteps?
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