When looking back at Princess Diana’s life — her rise to royalty, adoring fans, struggle, scandal, and tragedy—it’s no wonder she was deemed the People’s Princess. She navigated her ups and downs with the whole world watching, somehow making royalty feel relatable. Interviews, biographies, and documentaries have recounted the intimate yet widely-shared details of Diana’s story: how she wound up marrying Charles in the first place, her experience an outsider in an stiff and insular family, raising two boys in the public eye, and untangling the most talked about marriage as the most photographed woman in the world. So, how did she maintain any sense of dignity and privacy? While wardrobe played a role in Diana’s resilience, there was one sartorial shield that seemed to protect the princess while in the spotlight: her sunglasses.
Although Diana’s revenge dress, sheep sweater, and summer wardrobe are the most covered corners of her closet, her collection of sunglasses were the more subtle MVP. From the early ’80s until her final summer in 1997 spent enjoying herself in the south of France, Diana was often photographed from behind her own lenses, her most functional accessory. In the trailer for season six: part one of The Crown—which comes out November 16 and focuses heavily on the paparazzi’s constant pursuit of Diana and the toll it took on the royal—we see Elizabeth Debicki slip on her sunglasses as a way to protect herself from the cameras. That seems to be the case in real life as well. If the everyday celebrity wears shades to feel less vulnerable to the prying eyes of photographers and fans, then Princess Diana, one of the world’s most famous individuals, is a case study in the sunglasses-as-a-shield metaphor. And in true Lady Di form, she made a fashion moment out of her shades, too.
One of the first times Princess Diana was photographed wearing sunglasses was days before her wedding, in the summer of 1981, when she wore her signature oversize brown aviators with a pair of pastel yellow overalls to a polo match. Ironically, Diana wore the sunglasses on her head for much of the day, perhaps because she didn’t yet have to shield her face from hordes of photographers. The oversize aviators quickly became part of the princess’s signature style.
Just two years later, in 1983, Princess Diana was photographed wearing the the iconic black sheep sweater for the second time (which prompted speculation on whether Diana was sending a message to the world re: being a black sheep in a royal family) and the same style of oversize aviators, this time over her eyes. She was again seen wearing these aviators at the Cowdray Park Polo Club, during a visit to Bonbury, and at subsequent polo matches. Slowly embracing sunglasses as a protector, Diana smiled behind her semi-translucent lenses.
Sunglasses soon became a more prominent accessory in Lady Di’s ensembles. In 1987, she was photographed at the Cardiff Cricket Club wearing a pair of white-outlined, oversize sunglasses. In 1988, she was photographed in another white-outlined pair during a visit to Australia, and again at a race in Abu Dhabi and at the opening of the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in New South Wales. Staying true to her gravitation toward unconventional, casual styles and a love for the aviator silhouette, Diana preferred to have fun with sunglasses while guarding herself from more than just UV rays.
As her fame (and marriage) exploded, Diana’s lenses became more opaque. In March 1990, the princess was photographed wearing Ray-Ban Wayfarers while in Lagos. That same year, while on holiday on King Juan Carlos of Spain’s yacht in Majorca, she wore a pair of dark, square aviator-inspired sunnies. Two years later in Spain, she wore a pair of Lennon-inspired circular black shades. In 1994 in London, she wore a pair of rectangular tortoise-shell glasses with an all-white look and olive blazer. And then of course, there were her athletic looks: With her bicycle shorts and oversize crewneck sweatshirts, Diana often wore quintessential ’90s tortoise oval sunglasses.
It should be noted that, even in her most scandalous, paparazzi-ridden post-divorce days, the People’s Princess seemed to prefer to connect with the public eye to eye. It s almost shocking, actually, how often she was photographed without sunglasses while outside—waving from a plane, shaking hands with fans—further suggesting that she really only used the accessory when she absolutely had to, perhaps when she felt most vulnerable. Considering the pointed statements Lady Di often made with her wardrobe choices, it wouldn’t be a stretch to wonder if her shades were symbolic, too. In the moments that she did turn to her sunglasses, whether reaching for see-through lenses or blackout shades, she always made a statement—fashion and otherwise—that will forever keep us guessing.