A blow-dry, a smile, a tight black dress: we know well this appearance of Lady Di who made the "Shy Di" ("Di the shy", Editor's note), the "princess of the people". It was on June 29, 1994, at a charity gala held at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Diana defied palace dress conventions in this creation by Greek designer Christina Stambolian, hours after Prince Charles publicly confessed his adultery with Camilla Parker Bowles. Observers saw a dress with high symbolic significance, cut to catch the eye and to assert herself no longer as the wife of Prince Charles but as a free and independent woman. Not to mention the underlying message that hinted at a "this is what you lose" and gave rise to the term "revenge dress", which has since entered common parlance. This is what we will learn in the documentary "Princess Diana's Dresses: The Auction": the designer Christina Stambolian reveals that Diana had bought the dress three years before but had never worn it because she considered it too "daring". However, by wearing it that night, the princess had "played it like Odile", the black swan of Swan Lake.
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Lady Di's triumphant arrival at the Serpentine Gallery. (London, 29 June 1994.) Tim Graham - Getty Images
Camilla's Revenge
What is less known is the almost identical choice of clothing made by Camilla a year after Diana's media appearance. It is October 18, 1995, at the Ritz in London where an evening is held in the presence of Prince Charles. Divorced for a few months, Camilla arrives all in black dress, Bardot neckline and rows of pearls. Obviously, a copy-paste of the Diana look that do not fail to pin the tabloids, which then caricature her as a breaker of couple, a treacherous mistress, and criticize her for her physical appearance. Still, the motivations around this outfit have always remained very unclear. Did she want to "shout" her desire for freedom? That of finally living his love in the open? Or thumb your nose awkwardly at your rival? History will say no more. But she will show that after more than thirty years of being considered an outcast, Camilla has become queen of long-term love affairs. And by the way, from the United Kingdom.
