10 Times Princess Diana’s Outfits Scandalized The Royal Family 》

Many have noted the surprising number of similarities between Meghan Markle and Princess Diana. But perhaps the biggest similarity is that each woman found a variety of interesting ways to scandalize the Royal Family.

Diana had many scandals in England, but the ones that took the world by storm often revolved around her fashion. Diana had both a distinct sense of style and a down-to-earth approach to clothing that seemed to alternately perplex and horrify her fellow royals.

Which outfits caused such a royal stink, and what’s the story behind each scandal? We’ve got the full details below!

Dropping jaws with a strapless dress

Diana was a beautiful woman, and she certainly knew how to emphasize that beauty with cute outfits. And one of her most notable fits was the strapless dress that she wore outside of London’s Goldsmith’s Hall when she and Charles announced their engagement.

They wanted headlines about the engagement, but many headlines and photos emphasized the gap at the top of Diana’s dress. As for Diana, she later looked back on the scandal with what seemed to be amusement. Yahoo! Reports that she described the event by saying, “I was quite big-chested then and they all got frightfully excited.”

Here’s a little spoiler: the Royal Family getting very frightened over what a beautiful woman is wearing will be a running theme here!

Shocking in her birthday suit

As you can tell, Diana learned early on how much of an impression she could make in a low-cut dress. It shocked the royals when she first got engaged. And after she and Charles divorced, she no longer had to worry about how the Royal Family felt. You can tell by the dress she wore on the birthday before her death.

She is sporting a Jacques Azagury dress that was gifted to her by the designer. Once again, tabloids and photographers focused a bit too much on her cleavage. But at this point, Diana had a plan: she liked to hold up her clutches when getting out of cars to block her cleavage from being photographed. Diana, who always had a funny sense of humor, referred to these clutches as her “cleavage bags.”

The infamous ‘revenge’ dress

The old saying goes that revenge is a dish best served cold. Diana never got that memo, though, and she decided that revenge was going to be absolutely smoking hot!

This, of course, is the dress we first saw Diana rocking after her divorce from Prince Charles was finalized. She looks nothing short of stunning in this dress, and many assumed that she was showing Charles exactly what he could never have again. Because of this, both Diana’s biggest fans and biggest haters dubbed this her “revenge” dress.

Here comes the bride

Compared to that strapless dress when she got engaged, Diana’s wedding gown was much more conservative. However, it still managed to rub the Royal Family’s nose the wrong way.

Some thought her 25-foot train was a bit much. Others thought she added too many girly details to a dress that was already the epitome (for better or for worse) of ’80s fashion. Finally, some criticized how the dress crinkled inside of her royal carriage.

As for Diana, we’re pretty sure that carriage couldn’t get her away from the press and other royals nearly fast enough.

Causing a ‘Grease’ fire

The image of Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta may seem like something out of a movie. However, this is very real: the two were at a White House Party in 1985. According to Insider, Nancy Reagan confided to Travolta that Diana fantasized about dancing with him, and she convinced the famous actor to ask Diana for a dance around midnight. Travolta himself recounts the tale in the video below, which also reveals they danced to a medley of songs from his movies!

As you can tell, Diana was thrilled by the dance. But the Royal Family and some journalists were less-than-thrilled with Diana’s bare neck and shoulder in her midnight velvet blue gown, believing that the combination of famous actor and provocative dress was downright scandalous for this married woman.

Ring around the haters

Most of Diana’s offensive fashion choices involve clothing that shows off a little too much. However, one thing that annoyed the royals for showing off too little, and that’s Diana’s engagement ring.

Allegedly, Diana picked this Gerrard ring out of a catalog because it was her favorite. But to the Royal Family (who typically have breathtaking jewelry commissioned by veteran artisans), the origin of her engagement ring was a little too pedestrian for their tastes.

The time she wore jeans and sneakers to a press conference

Diana quickly discovered that she just couldn’t win when it came to fashion. When she wore fancy clothing, it was typically criticized for being too revealing. But when she dressed comfortably and conservatively, she was criticized for not being fancy enough!

The best example of this comes from the time she gave a speech at the Angola airport wearing a blazer, jeans, and sneakers. While jeans and sneakers are how most of us travel comfortably on an airplane, many thought that Diana was presenting herself a little too casually for an official royal engagement.

Go, Eagles!

One of the reasons Diana was so beloved is that she was a real princess of the people. And if you have any doubt about that, check out her showing off this Philadelphia Eagles jacket

It was given to her by a friend (Jack Edelstein, who was also friends with Grace Kelly), and she wore the jacket with pride. But the combination of casual style and American fashion made many heads spin back in England.

Tantrums over a tiara

When it comes to royal drama, you sometimes have to read between the lines. For example, you may not know just how many feathers Diana managed to ruffle by wearing her own tiara!

What’s the tea? Basically, because Diana had her own royal ancestry, that meant she had her own royal Spencer tiara. The Royal Family always offered to loan her tiaras (including the Cambridge Lover’s Knot that we often see Kate Middleton now wearing), but Diana still rocked her own tiara very often. Many assumed this was her way of subtly rebelling against the crown, especially during official events.

A work of art goes to the Met Gala

By now, you’ve probably realized that the criticisms of Diana’s dresses almost always boil down to “she looked too sexy while wearing that.” And that is the same basic criticism that Diana received over this Dior navy blue dress that she wore to the Met Gala in 1996.

While it is not very revealing, many seized on the fact that it is designed more like a negligee than a traditional dress. And since this was in the midst of her divorce from Prince Charles, the dress caused its own miniature scandal.