Princess Diana Was Told Not to Wear This Color as a Royal—So She Wore It “Whenever She Pleased” After Splitting From Prince Charles

Rachel BurchfieldFri, July 3, 2026 at 5:46 PM UTC

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Princess Diana on her final birthday on July 1, 1997.Credit: GettyThe Gist -

One unspoken royal fashion rule? Wearing the color black is reserved for mourning—not for day-to-day wear.

Princess Diana often bucked this tradition, particularly after separating from Prince Charles in 1992 (hello, 1994’s “Revenge Dress”).

The former Princess of Wales went against the rule even before marrying into the royal family, breaking it as early as March 1981, before she and Charles married that July.

The royal family is chock full of customs and traditions—including what to wear, and when.

For royals, black is typically considered to be a color of mourning, not to be worn in one’s day-to-day life. That’s a royal fashion rule that Princess Diana always went against—particularly after her marriage to Prince Charles ended. The couple separated in 1992 and eventually finalized their divorce in 1996.

Princess Diana on November 20, 1995.Credit: Getty

In addition to her black “Revenge Dress” look—one of her most iconic looks of all time, worn in June 1994—the former Princess of Wales also wore black to a charity gala in November 1995, on the same night that her controversial BBC Panorama interview aired. Designer Jacques Azagury—who worked with Diana on some of the more daring looks she wore towards the end of her life—said on Hello!’s “A Right Royal Podcast” that she turned to him to design that November 1995 look.

“She called me to the palace and told me she had done the interview,” he said. “She explained her reasons, saying, ‘Look, I haven’t said anything bad. I just want to tell things the way they are.’ But she knew the interview would be airing at the exact same time she was due to step out at a cancer research fundraiser that evening. She needed something great for her appearance.”

“I took three dresses to her, all of them black, because I loved her in black,” Azagury said. “Of course, by that time, she was finally able to wear the color whenever she pleased. If you notice, the minute she was free from royal restrictions, she wore as much black as possible.”

Princess Diana's "Revenge Dress" is one of her most iconic black ensembles.Credit: Getty

Diana chose a dress “straight away”—a “very simple dress with an Empire waist, made with layers of georgette and crêpe,” the designer said. “It was incredibly light—just skimming her body—with a top made of embroidered lace. And, again, the neckline was getting lower.”

She later wore the same dress to an event with Henry Kissinger in New York City. “All the newspapers the following morning featured photographs of Henry Kissinger looking down at her cleavage,” Azagury said. “We had quite a laugh about that one.”

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Henry Kissinger and Princess Diana.Credit: Getty

In addition to saving black for times of mourning, royals also typically wear bright colors to appearances so as to be seen more easily. Hello! reported that, more and more in the mid-1990s, Diana “transformed a color once tied to restriction into a powerful visual assertion of her independence.”

Fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes said (per Hello!) that Diana loved little black dresses, but royal restrictions prevented her from wearing them as she wanted to. “She was very shy,” Rhodes said. “She would come into my shop in Mayfair and go through the rails. Sometimes she picked something in black, which the royals weren’t allowed to wear except at funerals, so we would make it in her size in a different color.”

Though there was the unspoken rule about wearing black, Diana disregarded it as early as 1981, even before she married Prince Charles that July. Not long after the two announced their engagement, Diana wore a black gown by David and Elizabeth Emanuel (who went on to design her wedding dress) to a fundraising concert on March 9—Charles and Diana’s first public engagement together.

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on March 9, 1981.Credit: Getty

After seeing Diana in the off-the-shoulder taffeta ensemble, Charles told his soon-to-be wife, “Only people in mourning wear black!” She wore it anyway.

Speaking to Hello!, Azagury noted that, nearly three decades after her death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, Diana “is still incredibly present, whichever way you look at it.”

Princess Diana wearing Jacques Azagury on July 1, 1997.Credit: Getty

“People are still constantly talking about her and her life,” he added. “She truly was a phenomenon, the likes of which we will not see again for a very long time, if ever.”

He continued, “I just feel incredibly privileged and lucky—it is still a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment. When I think of all the designers across the world who were clamoring to dress her, the fact that she still chose to come to me was the ultimate reward for my career.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”