Shay Rose is just over here knocking the fashion world on its knees! I stumbled on Shay’s recreation of Princess Diana‘s revenge dress and could not believe all it took was $11 and her brilliant brain! This girl is going places!!!
“It’s Women’s History Month, and as just a little way to celebrate, I wanted to do a mini project based on an inspiring woman! So, this is my little tribute, recreating Princess Diana’s revenge dress,” says the social media rockstar.
Shay goes on to explain why she admires Diana, “Princess Diana was a style icon (of course), but she did so much more – she was an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, banning landmines, and she didn’t let royal protocol stop her.” It seems that Diana’s naughtiness inspired her too! “This dress is one of her most iconic – it’s known as the revenge dress.”
Butler Paul Burrell remembers the night fondly. Princess Diana barely wanted to attend the Vanity Fair party and had put on a rather bland (but was anything she ever wore REALLY BLAND?!) dress. According to him, he went and pulled out the feisty frock from her wardrobe room and she changed. She was dreading the media presence because she knew that night that Prince Charles had an interview with his friend, Jonathan Dimbleby. The Prince of Wales was expected to discuss his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles which humiliated the Princess.
The next morning Charles and his mistress found themselves relegated to under the fold. Princess Diana and her revenge dress were splashed across the front page of every major newspaper in the country.
Shay gives step-by-step instructions on her Instagram stories with photos.
The 21-year-old designer had two days to execute her challenge. She decided to start with a base to build the dress off of so she headed to her local Goodwill. Sitting within the walls of the thrift store sat a perfect black 90’s ruched dress. Shay explained to her followers, “Because it’s long,” over a photo of her holding the dress, “I can salvage the fabric. I don’t think I’ll need to buy anymore fabric.” It was only $11!
Although the dress seemed perfect, she recognized that there was a lot of work to be done. “I still have to do quite a bit to it. Change the neckline, make it shorter, add sash, fit it, etc. but I honestly could not have found a more perfect base.”
The first thing Shay did was use a seam ripper to carefully separate the skirt from the top. Now was probably one of the most difficult tasks, modifying the bodice. Shay was looking to create a sweetheart neckline with a criss-cross of the ruching… just like Princess Diana’s. “I’m going to see if I can Frankenstein pieces of this together to get that shape!”
The next morning, she focused on draping and hand sewing the gathers in the front of the bodice while watching Ratatouille. After Shay finished the top, she added a shorter skirt. Thanks to the long skirt originally on her $11 thrift find, the designer had plenty of extra fabric for Princess Diana’s sultry sash. “I love her so much,” she says. “It came out way better than I expected!”
Shay says of the finished product, “I feel so fancy in it. It is honestly just a really lovely dress.” You look awesome Shay Rose! You can follow her on Instagram and TikTok @crescentshay.
Kinsey Schofield is the Founder of To Di For Daily and you can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.