This July 1 would have been Princess Diana’s 65th birthday. Over the course of her life, the princess was beloved for her acts of kindness, philanthropy, and image-making (both politically and personally). From shaking hands with an AIDS patient in London—helping to debunk harmful myths and reduce stigma—to walking through a minefield in Angola to bring international attention to the issue of landmines and to help garner support for their ban, Diana knew the power of an image.
She became a visual icon for her fashion as well, with legendary outfits like the black dress she wore after Prince Charles admitted to an affair on national television, now known in pop culture as the “revenge dress.” (It even has its own Wikipedia page.) Or her wedding dress, with its puff sleeves and 25-foot train. While there are, of course, only so many photos of the princess, sometimes rarely seen shots emerge.
For example: On March 4, 2022, two white-gloved curators hung a rarely seen portrait of the late Princess of Wales, by David Bailey, on the walls of Kensington Palace. The black-and-white portrait is striking in its minimalism, showing simply the profile of Diana staring ahead, steadfast. A new view of the Princess, added to the cultural canon.
In honor of the birth of “the People’s Princess,” we revisit some of the most famous images of the late Princess of Wales.
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