Princess Diana made headlines when she stepped out in a black off-the-shoulder dress on June 29, 1994 — the same night that then-Prince Charles admitted to infidelity on national television. Referred to as Princess Diana’s “revenge dress,” the iconic outfit made a statement. Now, 30 years later, Princess Diana’s nieces have brought the revenge dress back in their own ways.
More from CafeMom: Angelina Jolie & Son Knox Walk Red Carpet Together at 2024 Governors Awards
Princess Diana's nieces, Ladies Eliza and Amelia Spencer, wore black off-the-shoulder dresses to the British Fashion Awards.
On December 2, Princess Diana’s twin nieces, 32, wore black off-the-shoulder dresses to the British Fashion Awards — an apparent nod to their late aunt’s revenge dress. The dresses were both floor length but had their own distinct features. Eliza’s dress featured drapey sleeves, while Amelia’s featured thin straps and a plunging neckline.
Wearing the revenge dress was a way for Princess Diana to 'fight back.'
Princess Diana’s revenge dress, which was designed by Christina Stambolian, did not conform to royal standards, which is why it made such a significant statement at the time.
William Ivey Long, costume designer for the Broadway musical Diana, previously explained that when choosing to wear the dress, Princess Diana “decided that she was going to fight back, and she decided that she would choose a dress that she had previously rejected as being a little too much,” per People.
More from CafeMom: Critics Slam Kim Kardashian for Wearing Princess Diana’s Cross Pendant With a Risqué Dress
Amelia and Eliza were young when Princess Diana died, but they remember that she was 'incredibly warm, maternal, and loving.'
When Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997 at age 36, Amelia and Eliza were only 5 years old. At the time, there were some things that the twins, who are daughters of Diana’s brother Charles Spencer, were too young to fully understand.
“As a child, I realized the enormity of the loss for my father and family,” Eliza told Tatler. “It was only later that I came to understand the significance of the loss of her as a figure in the world.” She told the publication that her aunt was “incredibly warm, maternal, and loving.”
The twins grew up in South Africa.
The twins have largely stayed out of the public eye over the years. When they were young, their family moved to South Africa, which meant they didn’t get to spend a ton of time with their late aunt before she died. Luckily, though, Princess Diana did “come and visit us in South Africa on a few occasions,” Eliza explained to Tatler. “She stayed with us, just before she passed away, at my father’s house here in Cape Town. We were very fortunate to have spent that time with her.”
They like to dress alike.
Wearing matching outfits isn’t unusual for the twins, so the fact that they both wore their own version of their late aunt’s revenge dress to the same event is unsurprising. In 2023, Amelia told the National Association of Jewelers that she and her sister “have the exact same taste in clothing, and will arrive at a dinner or meet up in the day dressed to match.”
“When choosing outfits for an event, we’ve found the only way to do this fairly is to take it in turns who gets to choose first,” she said at the time.
