Coaching Personal Branding Styling
June 1st, 2022
Princess Diana’s Revenge Dress
Earlier in the week, I took my mum and my daughter to the Princess Diana photography and art exhibit at Casa Loma to celebrate Mother’s Day.
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Among the many photos of The People’s Princess, her boys and her daughters-in-law, was this one of her in the infamous “Revenge Dress”.
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The story goes that Princess Diana wore this black silk dress (which had been made for her 3 years prior and had never worn because she worried that it was “too daring”) on the night that Prince Charles’ confession of his infidelity to her aired on national television.
Knowing this, Princess Diana reportedly felt that she had 2 choices for that evening: stay home, hide and live with all of the media speculation OR step out into the world with her best foot forward.
So she accepted an invitation to a dinner (that she had previously declined) and showed up at the Vanity Fair event where she knew that there would be crawling with media. Her dress spoke volumes without her having to say a word. Confident. Glamorous. With a strong side of “eff you – your loss.”
“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 following day. “ 1
How you choose to dress to show up in your life matters. Your clothes speak volumes about you long before you can even say your name. AND they impact how you present yourself. You stand taller. You speak with greater confidence. You FEEL better.
And people perceive you differently. As empowered. As insightful. As engaged. As accomplished. As deserving of a place at the table (whatever that table looks like for you).
What item in your closet gives you “revenge dress” level confidence?
A favourite blazer? A fab pair of shoes? A special piece of jewellery?
You’ll know because you will light up when you put it on and look in the mirror.
Not sure? Let me help you find it.
1 Wikipedia, 2022, accessed 1 June, 2022