Princess Diana's Daring Dress for Her Final Birthday Still Holds Significance, 28 Years Later
The Princess of Wales died just two months later in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.
For that final birthday, Diana wore a daring black Jacques Azagury creation to a gala—the last time she attended an official public event of this sort before her death.Had she lived to see it, Princess Diana would have turned 64 years old on July 1—but instead, her final birthday was her 36th on this day in 1997.
The former Princess of Wales celebrated her final birthday just two months before her life was tragically cut short in a Paris car crash on August 31. Diana spent July 1, 1997 at a gala, attending the Tate Gallery's 100th anniversary party in London wearing one of designer Jacques Azagury's Famous Five dresses, designed for the Princess of Wales at the end of her life and more daring and bold than looks she'd worn before. By her last birthday, Diana's divorce from Prince Charles had, at last, been finalized; that took place on August 28, 1996. It was her first birthday as a fully single woman since her 20th birthday in 1981, just days before she and Charles married that July 29 at St. Paul's Cathedral.
Because Diana was beginning to move on from her royal life, Azagury designed a black dress for her—a color normally only worn in times of mourning by royals. The beaded black gown—which is known today as the 36th Birthday Dress—was a gift from Azagury to his friend for her birthday; Diana originally intended to wear another dress to the gala, but loved Azagury's creation so much that she switched her plans at the last minute.
The 36th Birthday Dress is made of black Chantilly lace, features satin straps, and is hand-embroidered. It was the last gown Diana wore to a public function before her untimely death. Alongside it, she wore an emerald and diamond choker and matching drop earrings, the choker from the royal family's collection originally gifted to Queen Mary by the Ladies of India in 1911. Queen Elizabeth gave it to Diana on a 'lifetime loan' shortly after she married Charles.
At the Chanel sponsored-gala, Diana took time to greet well-wishers who had gathered outside the Tate Gallery. The crowd 'showered her with birthday presents, including cards, flowers, and a small pink balloon featuring a cartoon bear,' People reported.
'Diana had a genius for people,' her brother Charles Spencer told the outlet. (Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, was actually his older sister's date to the gala that night.) 'She could make any person, whether they were the grandest or the most humble, feel totally at ease in her company.'
Tragically, speaking at her funeral on September 6—just two months later—Charles said of his sister, 'The last time I saw Diana was on July 1, her birthday, in London, when, typically, she was not taking time to celebrate her special day with friends, but was the guest of honor at a special charity fundraising evening.'
'She sparkled, of course,' he said in her eulogy.
The Mirror reported that on July 1, 1997, Diana received more than 90 bouquets of flowers and countless cards—'a true testament to how loved she was around the world,' the publication wrote. No doubt one of the most touching birthday wishes, though, came from Diana's younger son Prince Harry, who was away at school and called her on the phone, 'making all of his classmates sing 'Happy Birthday' down the phone to her,' according to The Mirror.
Of the Princess of Wales on her final birthday, Azagury told Hello!, 'She was happier than I had ever seen her. There was something about the way she carried herself—a certain newfound confidence.'
Royal author and former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair Tina Brown wrote in Tatler on the occasion of Diana's 60th birthday in 2021 that, had she lived a longer life, 'I think she would have achieved it all.'
Her final birthday was her first post-divorce. It seems somehow extra cruel that Diana was taken not just so young, but so on the cusp and precipice of all that was to come for her—all the good that lay ahead.
'Her death at 36 left her forever young in a freeze frame of unfinished longing,' Brown wrote—ever so poignantly.
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