Color trends come and go, and as we all wave goodbye to butter yellow, there’s a new shade that everyone will be wearing for fall 2025. Whether it’s pale lavender, deep plum or ultra-bright violet, shades of purple are reigning supreme this season—and one member of the Royal Family was more than 30 years ahead of the trend.
Like butter yellow, Princess Diana was often seen in purple throughout her royal career and even before, as seen in the famous 1980 photos of Lady Di posing with her kindergarten students. Wearing a purple sweater vest, lavender shirt and pastel skirt that turned out to be surprisingly sheer in the light, the soon-to-be fiancée of Prince Charles captured the public imagination.
She’d go on to wear a number of punchy purple looks in the ’80s and ’90s, including regal crushed velvet gowns, smart lavender power suits and everything in between.
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Lady Diana Spencer is seen outside the school where she worked in September 1980.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Purple, of course, has long had an association with royalty. While us mere mortals can wear purple with wild abandon today, it was once a color that was reserved for the most elite members of society. Queen Elizabeth I even banned commoners from wearing the color, which was extraordinary expensive to produce at the time due to how the dye was produced.
Princess Diana, for one, knew exactly how to slip the shade into her ever-evolving work wardrobe, embracing puffy, romantic lilac gowns in the earlier years of her marriage and shifting to modern pieces like the sleek purple Versace dress she wore for a trip to Chicago after her divorce from Prince Charles.
Take a look back at some of Diana’s most memorable purple looks, ahead.
April 1983
Princess Diana is seen in Auckland, New Zealand in 1983.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Like her famous wedding gown, the pastel purple creation Diana wore during her tour of Australia and New Zealand leaned into the bows and poofy silhouettes of the early ’80s. The princess wore this off-the-shoulder Donald Campbell style to a gala ballet performance in Auckland, New Zealand, and while it wouldn’t have looked out of place as a bridesmaid’s gown at the time, Diana made the dress look utterly glam.
October 1987
Princess Diana is seen in London in 1987.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Princess Diana attended a glittering banquet on behalf of one of her patronages, Birthright, in 1987, wearing a Catherine Walker evening gown that paid tribute to Elizabethan style. The long-sleeved dress featured a velvet bodice and purple ruff collar, finishing off with a bright purple skirt. But the star of the show was the enormous amethyst and diamond cross necklace she wore with the gown—a piece that Kim Kardashian would go on to acquire at auction in 2023.
November 1988
Princess Diana is seen with designer Bruce Oldfield in 1988.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The royal once again showed her love for velvet during a 1988 gala to support children’s charity Barnardo’s, wearing a deep purple off-the-shoulder gown by Bruce Oldfield. She carried the purple theme down to her jewels, wearing an amethyst choker necklace and matching amethyst and diamond drop earrings.
October 1990
Princess Diana is seen with Prince William and Prince Harry in 1990.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The late princess wore this Catherine Walker suit on numerous occasions in the ’90s, including a church service for fire brigade veterans in the fall of 1990. The pale pink blazer and matching skirt was trimmed with bright violet lapels, cuffs and buttons, and she wore the outfit with coordinating purple pumps. While Diana owned a matching hat—as seen in the photos of her with Prince William and Prince Harry at St Paul’s Cathedral—she often wore the suit without its purple-trimmed topper for a more businesslike look.
June 1996
Princess Diana is seen in Chicago in 1996.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Diana headed to Chicago in the summer of 1996, attending a gala at the city’s Field Museum in a bright violet Versace dress. The clean lines and sleeker silhouette of the dress fit in with her fresher post-divorce style, and she paired the gown with a dazzling choker, her amethyst and diamond drop earrings and purple Jimmy Choo heels.
June 1997
Princess Diana is seen in Washington, D.C. in 1997.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Diana often embraced a power suit, and she wore this lavender Versace skirt set just two months before her tragic 1997 death. She sported the belted blazer and pencil skirt to give an anti-landmines campaign speech in Washington, D.C., pairing the look with chunky pearl jewelry.
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