The Crown Season 5 has officially been released, and with the new season we’ve entered a whole new decade as the show explores the early ’90s and some of the most televised moments in the British royal family’s history.
This new season depicts a lot of memorable events, like the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, but the collapse of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage is at the center of Season 5, much like it was in real life at the time.
Alongside numerous other new cast members, Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki have taken over the roles of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, during the most notable period in their respective lives.
As mentioned above, The Crown Season 5 dives into the moment Prince Charles and Princess Diana decide to get divorced, and the fallout it caused with the royal family.
With the end of the marriage comes one of the most iconic Princess Diana moments from 1994, when she wore the “revenge dress,” which essentially publicly called out Charles’ infidelity. The dress is on full display in The Crown Season 5 episode “The Way Ahead.”
In case you don’t know, Diana wore the black evening gown designed by Christina Stambolian — which she allegedly had purhcased three years earlier but felt it was too “daring” — to a Vanity Fair fundraising dinner at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. While she had initially declined the invitation, she ended up accepting it shortly before the event.
The dinner notably fell on the same night a documentary about Prince Charles aired on TV, where he admitted to being unfaithful to Diana after their marriage had “irretrievably broken down.”
The “revenge dress” remains an important moment in Princess Diana’s history, with many still praising her for reclaiming her narrative. Three years after wearing the dress, Princess Diana actually auctioned it off for $65,000, with the money benefiting cancer and AIDS-related charities.
Since this Princess Diana look comes with so much history and importance, it’s no surprise that a lot of work went into re-creating it for The Crown Season 5.
“The revenge dress was pressure,” explained Elizabeth Debicki to British Vogue in an interview earlier this month. She said that after booking the role, one of the first things her friends wanted to know is if she would get to wear the iconic black evening gown.
Like with most costumes on The Crown, there was a “lengthy” fitting process when it came to making sure the “complex” off-the-shoulder Christina Stambolian ensemble was re-created just right.
During her costume fittings for the dress, Elizabeth said she often took the time to reflect and think about how the real Princess Diana was feeling during that time and in that moment.
“I let the fittings happen around me while I thought about what the dress meant. Why this dress? She’d had it for two or three years. It was super risqué at the time.'”
Elizabeth continued, saying, “She was claiming the space. The way she walked out of that car, the luminosity, the strength of her as that car door opened, she was so fast and so forward. It’s an extraordinary thing to watch.”
“To decide what you’re saying about yourself through fashion… it was a currency. An incredibly powerful currency.”
While the scene in The Crown Season 5 doesn’t last very long, it still makes a lasting impact, so much so that since the new season dropped there have been numerous new discussions about why Princess Diana’s “revenge dress” remains one of the most talked about moment in the royal family’s history.
Honestly, I loved seeing this Princess Diana look come alive on screen in The Crown, and Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of Diana is already awardworthy.
What did you think of The Crown Season 5? Tell us in the comments below!
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/the-crown-princess-diana-revenge-dress-elizabeth-debicki