The glitterati descend on the Metropolitan Museum in New York tonight, the first Monday in May,  for the world’s most spectacular fashion fundraiser.

Photographers will be lining the red carpet to snap Hollywood stars, fashion icons and renowned designers, as they attend the Met Gala, or Met Ball, as it is known colloquially, in extravagant outfits inspired by JG Ballard’s dystopian short story, The Garden of Time.

The Gala is the highlight of New York’s social calendar, frequently described as ‘fashion’s biggest night’.

Yet there will be no Royal seal of approval this year – unlike the remarkable occasion almost three decades ago, when a newly divorced Diana caused an absolute sensation.

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John Galliano, Dior’s new designer,  said that Diana had deliberately removed the interior bustier from the dress  ‘It was a reflection of how she was already feeling,’ he said. ‘Liberated.’

Diana’s £10,000 midnight blue dress, trimmed with black lace and worn underneath a matching velvet opera coat was the sensation of the night. She is pictured here with magazine editor Liz Tilberis

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Fashion commentator  Hilary Alexander described it as ‘the most important dress since Liz Hurley wore her safety-pinned Versace.’  The Daily Mail said it was more ‘Oh, Couture’ than ‘Haute Couture’

It was on December 9, 1996, four months after the divorce papers had been signed and just eight months before her death, that Diana attended the gala, which launched a Christian Dior exhibition at the museum. It marked the 50th anniversary of the designer’s 1947 New Look.

She had been invited to the event by Bernard Arnault, head of Dior, and flew in on Concorde, to attend the event.

Diana was pictured arriving with close friend Liz Tilberis, the British editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and chairwoman of the ball.

Diana’s £10,000 midnight blue dress, trimmed with black lace and worn underneath a matching velvet opera coat evoked a louche turn-of-the-century glamour.

It was also a fashion coup, as Diana she was the first person to wear a gown by Dior’s new designer, the enfant terrible John Galliano, from his highly anticipated first haute couture show.

She teamed it with her sapphire choker set in a triple strand of pearls and her Lady Dior bag, originally called the ‘Chouchou’, and renamed in her honour.

She had been given her first ‘Chouchou’ bag on a 1995 visit to Paris by the then-first lady, Madame Bernadette Chirac, and it became a firm favourite. She ordered it in blue the following year to ‘match her eyes’.

Galliano and his team travelled from Paris to London three times for fittings, making their last visit on November 28, the designer’s 35th birthday. He arrived at Kensington Palace to find that the Princess had organised a cake and champagne.

But the dress evoked mixed feelings. Fashion editor Hilary Alexander described it as ‘the most important dress since Liz Hurley wore her safety-pinned Versace’.

‘The whole idea of wearing a petticoat in public is new,’ she wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

‘We have seen actresses and starlets wearing underwear as outerwear, but for a princess to do it at a formal occasion is a different matter.

‘It is a very sensual rather than overly sexy dress, and it is a million miles away from the more formal outfits she usually picks.

‘It represents a new kind of royal dressing. By wearing the dress on such an important occasion, she is also paying a long-overdue homage to Galliano.’

However, fashion critic Brenda Polan was not a fan: ‘It was not so much haute couture as Oh! Couture,’ she wrote, in the Daily Mail.

‘The problem, and there is no delicate way of saying this, is that it looked like she had accidentally stepped out in her nightie, which meant, of course, that she wasn’t wearing a bra.’

However, in a 2018 interview, Galliano revealed that it was Diana, who had chosen to be provocative, removing the interior bustier. ‘It was a reflection of how she was already feeling,’ he told the Wall Street Journal Magazine.

 ‘Liberated.’

Guests at New York’s party of the year included American Vogue’s British editor Anna Wintour, designers Calvin Klein and Christian Lacroix, models Linda Evangelists, Christy Turlington, and Iman and photographer Patrick Demarchelier.

Three thousand guests for £150 for a ticket to the gala while another 900 paid £650 for the gala dinner, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Princess.

After sipping champagne and chatting with designers Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein and Bill Blass, Diana, was seated between Tilberis and Galliano, dined on sea bass, veal and tarte tatin.

But she slipped away before midnight, whisked in a stretch limo back to the plush Carlyle Hotel as the dancing was set to begin, missing the furore on the dance floor as guests smashed glasses and split champagne.

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Diana  had been invited to the event by Bernard Arnault, right, head of Dior.  From the left: John Galliano, Liz Tilberis, Diana and Helene Mercier, wife of Arnault

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The event proved to be a swansong for both Diana and Liz: the princess was killed in a car crash on August 31, 1997, at the age of 36. Tilberis died of ovarian cancer two years later at the age of 51

‘It was a zoo and I guess that maybe they didn’t want to put her through it,’ said Mica Traynor, a fashion designer. But I didn’t feel she was actually here. I just wanted to see her dance once, but no luck.’

‘People wanted to just look at her,’ added debutante Crickett Richards. ‘They paid to see her, and, to all intents and purposes, she did not show up. It’s a shame. She is so beautiful. I think she could have tried a little harder.’

However, Bianca Jagger said: ‘I don’t think she ever intended to stay long, but I know she enjoyed herself. She looked marvellous.’

Either way, the event proved a swansong for both Diana and Liz: the princess was killed in a car crash on August 31, 1997, at the age of 36 while Tilberis died of ovarian cancer two years later at the age of 51.

Claudia Joseph’s book Diana: A Life in Dresses is published by ACC Art Books £40.