If you can believe it, it’s been almost 29 years since Princess Diana left us. “The people’s princess” tragically passed away as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in Paris, on 31 August 1997. She was just 36.
It’s also been almost 30 years since her one and only appearance at the Met Gala. Princess Diana attended the 1996 event at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 9, 1996. The theme that year was Christian Dior.
Attending the Met Gala just a few months after finalizing her divorce from the then-Prince Charles, Princess Diana did something very unusual en route: She ripped the corset out of her gown.
But why did she do that?
Princess Diana Ripped Her Dress to Liberate Herself
GettyFashion designer John Galliano traveled to the 1996 Met Gala with Princess Diana. Per People, Galliano spoke about the process behind the creation of the dress, and discussed Diana’s reasons for ripping it, in the Hulu docuseries “In Vogue: The 90s.”
On designing the dress, Galliano said, “It was like a blessing. I mean like, wow. We went to Kensington Palace and discussed drawings. I was trying to push for pink, but she was not having it. ‘No, not the pink!’ That was real, real fun.”
Regarding her ripping it on her way to the Met Gala, Galliano said, “We did the dress and subsequent fittings, and it was beautifully done. Fast-forward to the event, and I just remember her getting out of the car. I couldn’t believe it. She’d ripped the corset out.”
He added, “She didn’t want to wear the corset. She felt so liberated. She’d torn the corset out. The dress was much more… sensuous.”
Princess Diana’s “liberation” from her corset feels symbolic of her liberation from her unhappy marriage in the August of 1996, just four months before her appearance at the Met Gala.
Diana Inspired Anna Wintour to Change the Met Gala
At the 1996 Met Gala, Princess Diana accessorized her boudoir-inspired design with a matching silk robe-like topper and her famous pearl-and-sapphire choker necklace.
Of course, she also carried the mini quilted Dior bag that the label is still known for today.
She spent a lot of time at the event with her good friend, Liz Tilberis. Tilberis was a British fashion magazine editor whose roles had included reinventing the iconic monthly fashion magazie “Harper’s Bazaar” as its editor-in-chief. She sadly passed away from ovarian cancer in 1999.
Per People, Anna Wintour had taken over the Met Gala just the year before Princess Diana attended. It’s widely believed that it was the princess’ attendance that inspired Wintour to turn it “from a society dinner to one of the most anticipated events in the fashion calendar.”
The former senior accessories director at Vogue, Filipa Fino, told the Daily Mail this week that, “This seed of Anna never being able to host Princess Diana at the Met, and her vision of what it should be like — worthy of a princess — is what drove her from 1996 to today. She took on the Costume Institute Ball as her own personal project.”
May Princess Diana rest in eternal peace.
