From Princess Diana to Lily Allen: A History of Revenge Dressing

On the same night that Prince Charles admitted to being unfaithful to her on national television, Diana attended a previously scheduled event at the Serpentine Gallery in London. She wore an off-the-shoulder dress by designer Christina Stambolian that she’d had in the back of her closet for nearly three years, but opted not to don out yet because she felt it was too daring. It became known as modern fashion’s first “revenge dress.” And to really add a personal twist of the symbolic knife, Diana accessorized the slinky number with a brooch that the Queen Mother had gifted her on July 29, 1981, the day Diana walked down the aisle to marry Prince Charles. (Di later had the brooch set on a pearl choker, which is how she wore it with her now-iconic frock.) What’s especially canny about Di wearing this dress at this time is that the day after she wore it, her inarguable appeal really reframed the narrative away from being “the woman Charles cheated on” to “a glamourous international figure.”

Nothing says, “the party’s over, dude” like a full-length mesh dress and heels, especially if it’s revealing one of the most smokin’ figures of modern modeldom. This was EmRata’s look at a W Magazine party right after she announced her split from her husband of four-and-a-half years, actor and producer Sebastian Bear-McClard.

On August 20, 2024 J.Lo filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after two years of marriage and multiple wedding ceremonies, including one in which the bride wore what appeared to be a 20-foot veil. For her first major public appearance after the divorce filing, Lopez turned up on a Canadian red carpet wearing considerably less fabric to drag her down. Her revenge dress was two strips of cloth encrusted with mirrors, attached at the sides with satin ribbons revealing her toned dancer’s legs and side boob. I can’t help but think of the shiny garb as representing the shattered rear view mirror of a car she took away from her wreck of a relationship with Affleck.

Revenge dressing isn’t always about showing lots of skin; sometimes the strategy is more “new year, new me” which might mean trying a more sophisticated style, new makeup or in the case of Reese Witherspoon’s appearance at the Golden Globes after divorce from Ryan Phillippe, a new haircut and a sassy designer dress (Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci).

Let’s see…you’re a beloved Hollywood icon who just had a seemingly unexpected public embarrassment of your husband announcing he’s leaving you after 19 years of marriage. What do you do? Why, show up for your scheduled gig walking the runway for Vogue magazine, wearing a dress popularized by one of history’s great beauties (Rita Hayworth in Gilda) and s-l-a-y. It’s a callback to Diana, for sure—there’s no one who can see Kidman in any of her recent social media posts or public appearances and not think, Keith Urban, man, you’ve really blown it.

And, coming in especially hot is Brit songstress Lily Allen, who just dropped West End Girl, perhaps the buzziest relationship album of the year (yep, even to rival Taylor Swift’s) throughout which she details scandalous intimate details presumed to be about her actor husband. Allen’s revenge dressing extends beyond her appearance in a tiny, lingerie-inspired top and long skirt at the CFDA Fashion Awards, though—she also cheekily dressed as children's book character Madeline for Halloween (the name she gives the woman Harbour apparently had an affair with in one of her songs). You go on, Lily and make that lemonade…we women are taking revenge dressing notes and drinking it up.