Revenge dresses at the ready

Really, we should be knee deep in sequins this week, and reading of nothing else but festive partywear. But if there’s one fashion topic more persuasive than ‘what to wear to the office do’, it’s Princess Diana. The timing of the release of season six of The Crown ensured a glut of coverage of Princess Diana’s costumes, and the accuracy thereof. Now, just as that coverage was tailing off, comes the release of Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame. 

Scobie’s apparent revelation that “it had been known for someone to go back and pull images of Diana at a certain place or time for ideas”, and that said images would have a bearing on the clothes worn by Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, is quite the thinker.

Yes, Diana was a stylish dresser who used clothes as tactically as any woman who has ever lived. Yet it’s still astonishing that, 26 after her death, she is held in such esteem not only by the public, which we knew, but by the palace. As for what this means for those charged with publicising Christmas partywear, let’s just say it’s a good time to be flagging any black velvet Revenge dresses, or other Diana-esque festive looks.