A Paris wax museum has unveiled a new figure of the late Princess Diana, depicting her in the iconic black outfit famously dubbed her "revenge dress”.
The Grevin Museum, one of Europe's oldest, presented the life-size Princess of Wales figure on Thursday, decades after her death in the city.
It showcases her in the distinctive black, off-the-shoulder, figure-hugging cocktail dress she wore to a 1994 Serpentine Gallery event in London.
This outfit gained its moniker as it was worn the same evening King Charles III – then Prince Charles – publicly acknowledged his infidelity with Camilla Parker Bowles.
The tribute holds particular poignancy in Paris, the city where Diana tragically died in a car crash in a tunnel by the Seine River in 1997. To this day, the French capital draws admirers who leave flowers and notes at informal memorials.
Diana's relationship with Dodi Al Fayed and the crash that killed them immortalized Diana's connection with Paris.
Museum officials told The Associated Press that the Grevin director ordered the likeness after being underwhelmed by its counterpart during a visit to Madame Tussauds wax museum in London a couple of years ago. They noted that the unveiling came on the 30th anniversary of an explosive interview that Diana gave to BBC “Panorama,” which observers say dented the standing of the monarchy and the Queen.
Some observers noted how the museum's newest royal guest was positioned far from wax likenesses of her ex-husband and former mother-in-law.
High heels, a pearl choker at her neck and a small handbag clasped in both hands completed the sculpture. Tabloids later dubbed the outfit the “revenge dress,” and the museum leaned into that symbolism.
French novelist Christine Orban, who wrote “Mademoiselle Spencer,” a novel imagined from Diana’s point of view, said the figure was overdue.
She called the black dress a turning point in Diana’s story.
“The dress is very significant of her liberation because in the royal family, black is only worn for funerals, and then such a sexy dress for a Princess of Wales, well, that’s not common either,” she said. “So she decides to wear her high heels and Louboutins. And to go to the Serpentine Gallery to make an impression, to get photographed.”
Grevin, founded in the 19th century, has long packed its ornate halls with political leaders, artists, pop-culture figures — and, yes, British royals. Diana is the latest in a steady stream of star wattage additions the museum uses to refresh the collection and boost visitors at the site that has attracted some 700,000 annual visitors in recent years.
News of the unveiling filtered through Paris, even before most people had a chance to visit.
“It brought back that night in the tunnel, even though I was a kid then,” said Julien Martin, 38. “Paris never completely let go of Diana, so it made sense that a big wax museum finally did this.”
“I wasn’t even alive but for my generation, she seems like the first modern princess — glamorous, but also vulnerable,” said 24-year-old student Lina Ben Amar. “If tourists come to see celebrities in wax, she is one of the first they will look for.”
Diana will be in good company. Curators set her beside another prominent royal who died in Paris — albeit centuries earlier: Marie-Antoinette.
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