Lady Amelia Spencer and Lady Eliza Spencer attend The Fashion Awards 2024 Presented by Pandora at the Royal Albert Hall on December 02, 2024 in London, England. Joe Maher/Getty Images for BFC
When the British Fashion Awards went down on Monday, December 2, in London, several guests channeled iconic celebrity styles from the past — including Princess Diana’s nieces.
Lady Amelia Spencer and Lady Eliza Spencer each paid tribute to her legendary revenge dress in LBDs and major jewels.
More than 30 years have passed since Diana made headlines at the June 1994, Serpentine Gallery, in the Christina Stambolian design. Lest you forget, earlier that same evening, Prince Charles publicly admitted to being unfaithful in their marriage.
Princess Diana Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
As Amelia and Eliza, 32, demonstrated, the late Princess of Wales’s singular style sense, and the revenge dress in particular, is still a conversation starter that can hold its own on the red carpet without being eclipsed by Hollywood royalty, including Rihanna (who referenced a noughties-era Pamela Anderson in a marabou feather hat and bustier inspired by the Baywatch actress’ turn at the 1999 VMAs).
Anwar Hussein/Getty Images Princess Diana had her own vision for the 1996 Met Gala. Maison Margiela creative director John Galliano opened up about designing Diana’s dress for Fashion’s Biggest Night during an episode of Hulu’s docuseries, In Vogue: The 90s, which is streaming now. “I remember one day we all jumped into this old van, […]
For the gala in 1994, Diana famously wore her dress with her sapphire and eight-strand pearl choker necklace, which was originally a brooch given to her by the Queen Mother.
As such, the Spencer twins donned their fair share of sparkling bijoux. Lady Amelia’s necklace was made up of several diamond clusters, while Lady Eliza opted for a more architectural necklace design, which made the diamonds look like they were floating.
Both were perfect accouterments for plunging necklines. Like Diana’s, Amelia’s off-the-shoulder dress boasted a V-shaped detail that revealed just enough cleavage. For her part, Eliza’s sleek black column came with voluminous off-the-shoulder sleeves that recalled the oversized 1980s silhouettes from Princess Diana’s fashion reign.
But even Diana nearly shied away from the revenge dress, worrying that the va-va-voom factor may send tongues wagging for all the wrong reasons. As Diana’s close friend Anna Harvey revealed in a 1997 Vogue interview, the Princess of Wales all but wrote off the look as “too daring” and planned on wearing a Valentino frock instead.
Anwar Hussein/Getty Images Leave it to Princess Diana to turn a beauty emergency into a major fashion statement. While Diana was on a tour of Australia with then-Prince Charles in 1985, she made headlines on October 31 – 39 years ago! – after she memorably wore an emerald choker necklace as a headband. And it […]
That was until news of Prince Charles’ affair broke, which prompted Diana to wear something that would be considered just racy enough to exude unbothered glamour.
She wanted to “look like a million dollars,” Harvey told Vogue. (In reality, the Christina Stambolian black dress was reportedly purchased for far less at around $1,142.)
Still, the moment dominated newspaper headlines, which all read something to the effect of, ‘Charles blusters as Diana dazzles,’ as reported by The Daily Mail at the time.
As Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza’s modern-day homage at the British Fashion Awards reminded Us, the revenge dress is a look that’s well worthy of its very own statuette.
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