The little known fact behind Princess Diana’s ‘revenge’ necklace

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Aside from her wedding dress, Princess Diana's revenge dress is perhaps her most famous one. She wore the black off-the-shoulder cocktail dress by Christina Stambolian to the Vanity Fair party at the Serpentine Gallery on 20th November 1994.

Although she'd bought it three years prior to the event, she thought it was too daring at the time. Luckily she changed her mind, and wore the head-turning frock on the very same night Prince Charles admitted to his affair with Camilla on TV.

Diana's outfit of course stole the headlines the next morning, earning it the 'revenge dress' moniker.

She accessorised it to perfection with a statement choker, which featured a large oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds and set on three strands of pearls.

A little known fact is that the piece didn't start out as a necklace at all. The central stone used to be a brooch belonging to Queen Mary, and Diana made the bold decision to turn it into a necklace and make it more modern and wearable.

The late royal loved the new piece and wore it countless times, including to the White House dinner where she danced with John Travolta in 1995.

The piece of course belonged to the royal family, so is it likely still in the collection now.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.