How Diana’s ultimate Revenge Dress SHOULD have looked: Princess’s iconic LBD would have faded into cream obscurity but for a last-minute change of design, an intervention from her loving brother… and a fall-out with a very famous designer

It was one of the most meaningful statements in the history of fashion – and of the royal family.

Nearly thirty years ago, on the night Prince Charles admitted his affair with Camilla, his estranged wife Princess Diana put on a little black number to deliver her own powerful, if silent, message.

On June 29, 1994, as the nation sat down to watch the future king make a confession to presenter Jonathan Dimbleby, Diana wore the ‘Revenge Dress’ – as it was soon dubbed – for her attendance at a glitzy fundraising dinner at the Serpentine Gallery.

The princess wowed everyone in the Christina Stambolian black silk crepe cocktail dress with an asymmetrical ruffled bodice and side sash.

She paired it with her sapphire, pearl and diamond choker – which matched her engagement ring – and deep red nails.

But according to Stambolian, Diana almost didn’t buy the £900 dress because she thought it was too daring; originally wanted it in cream; and only wore it that night in a fit of anger after rival designer Valentino leaked that she was going to wear his dress.

A press release described it as “the pièce de résistance…the brave, wicked, historic little Serpentine Cocktail, possibly the most strategic dress ever worn by a woman in modern times.”

‘This was the devastating swathe of black chiffon with which Diana swept her husband off the front pages the morning after his damaging television interview.

“This is a dress that shows that Diana, Princess of Wales, is in complete control of her own worth.”

Born in Greece and educated in Athens, Stambolian vividly remembers the day Diana walked into her shop on Beauchamp Place in London, after having lunch with her brother Earl Spencer at her favorite restaurant San Lorenzo.

“Diana bought a black and red short day dress, a yellow silk blouse and a small cream sleeveless blouse, which totaled about £400,” she previously recalled.

She said Diana told her: ‘I want a special dress for a special occasion. It doesn’t matter if it’s short or long. It must be something special.’

“We sat down and I made some sketches on a piece of paper,” Stambolian continued.

‘The dress was revealing, quite short and showed quite a bit of leg and flesh. Diana wasn’t sure. She thought it was a bit risky. She wanted everything more covered, longer and the neck higher.

‘I told her she had good legs and that she should show them. “Why don’t you dare?” I said. She asked her brother [Charles] and he said, “Do what you think is right.” Finally she said yes to the style and we moved on to the color.

‘I had black in mind, but she wanted cream. To me, Diana was a black and white person. I didn’t like her in the light pink and blue tones with lots of beads.’

The dress took two seamstresses more than 60 hours to make, as the delicately pleated bodice had to be pinned and sewn by hand, while the chiffon skirt had to be carefully draped.

For three years the hand-stitched dress, with its flirty hem, hung unworn in Diana’s wardrobe and Christina began to fear that it might never be seen in public.

“I was very disappointed,” she said. ‘Then I realized she had been waiting for the right opportunity.

“She had gone to Valentino to get a dress for that specific date. Then Valentino called all the newspapers and said she would come out with my dress tomorrow.

“She heard that and Diana said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to please him. I’m going to wear a different dress.’

Referring to one of Diana’s favorite ballets, Swan Lake, Stambolian added, “I loved seeing Diana wear it that night of all nights.”

‘She chose not to play the scene like Odette, innocent in white.

‘She was clearly angry. She played it as Odile in black. She was wearing bright red nail polish, which we had never seen her do before. She said, ‘Let’s be bad tonight.’

Stambolian did not see Diana again until the Christie’s auction reception in June 1997, when Diana auctioned off 79 of her most iconic evening dresses.

She whispered to Stambolian, “By the way, that little black dress—I had to do a job in it.”

“What she meant was that after two years she wore it and gained weight,” the designer explained.

“Actually, she looked a little squished in the photos. But she had nice shoulders and good legs.’

The dress was bought for £44,511 by Scotsman Graeme Mackenzie and his wife Briege, who owned the Body Shop franchise in Scotland.

They planned to put it on display to raise money for Scottish charities.

After the princess’s death, the couple from Bridge of Wier, in Renfrewshire, who had three sons, wrapped it in tissue paper and put it in a bank vault.

“The only noble thing you can do is not use it,” he said at the time. “It would have been inappropriate.”

Since then, it has appeared in public less than a dozen times.

But it has raised more than £39,000 for the charity Children’s First by hosting lunches in Aberdeen, balls in Stirling, evening events in Elgin and fashion shows in Bo’-ness and Edinburgh.

“The fame of the dress was one of the reasons we were interested in purchasing it,” Mackenzie previously said.

‘It has an intrinsic value because she only wore it once, on that particular night. It’s a little piece of history.

‘We were lucky enough to meet the Princess at the auction preview at Christie’s in London and told her our intentions to use the dress to raise money for charity.

‘Charities complained at the time that the National Lottery had an influence on their donations.

“I thought the dress would be a way to attract people to events and that publicizing it could only contribute to that goal.”

A replica, which Stambolian made in 2010, is in the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland.

“The replica was made later,” Stambolian explains. ‘I was staying in Greece and had nothing to do, so I thought: ‘I’m going to make that dress again.’

“I knew the dress very well, so I made a very, very, good one.”