A dress worn by Princess Diana in 1985 recently fetched £900,000 ($1.148) million at auction – the highest ever price for clothes worn by the princess.

In November, The Crown returned for its sixth and final series, with Elizabeth Debicki reprising her role as Diana. Even haters of the series unanimously concede that Debicki’s interpretation was knock-it-out-of-the-park, frighteningly good.

Pick up a copy of the latest issue of Tatler magazine and, looking at the photograph of Princess Diana adorning its cover, you’d be forgiven for thinking the year was 1984, not 2024.

The year of the portrait was in fact 1988 and was taken by David Bailey – he tells a story of his assistant dropping a light on the princess’s head during her sitting.

+13

The January issue of Tatler  which features a never-before-seen portrait of Princess Diana by David Bailey on the cover,

+13

Netflix’s shoot of actress Elizabeth Debicki recreating Mario Testino’s last official photographs of the Diana, Princess of Wales.

+13

One that The Crown makes much of is that Dodi Al Fayed proposed to Diana before her death

+13

Elizabeth Debicki recreates Princess Diana’s landmine campaign photo

Underneath the portrait, a caption reads, ‘Diana: a battle for her legacy’.

In 2023, more than any other year since her 1997 death, Diana has been discussed, dissected and deliberated over. It’s been a year of Diana mania.

Personally, I’m thrilled about Diana’s re-entry into public consciousnesses.

Well, re-entry is the wrong word, because she never left it. What I mean is that I am happy she’s entered the minds of a new, younger public: Gen Z – those born, roughly, in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

There are TikTok accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers whose content revolves around Diana, created by people born long after her death.

Why does this make me so happy? Because, as her brother Earl Spencer said in her eulogy, Diana was ‘unique, complex, extraordinary and irreplaceable’.

Eloise Moran, creator of the viral Instagram account @ladydirevengelooks (currently boasting 114k followers) and author of a best-selling book of the same name was only five when Diana died but was inspired to create her Instagram account after breaking up with a boyfriend and finding solace in Diana’s post-divorce empowerment.

In a world and social media landscape consumed insatiably by young adults but dominated by filtered versions of beauty and perfection, Princess Diana is – at least so far as Gen Z is concerned – a powerful dose of normality.

In her willingness to discuss her struggles – her crushing lack of self-worth and ensuing years of self-torture through bulimia – Diana is striking a powerful chord in a world that has never been so aware of fragility and the search for well-being.

+13

Prince Diana in her ‘black sheep’ jumper walking with Prince Charles at a polo meeting at Windsor, June 1983

+13

Alice Hare and her Warm & Wonderful ‘black sheep’ jumper is one of her key Diana looks

+13

Warm & Wonderful’s  Fitted “Diana Edition” Cotton Sheep Sweater for sale in 2023 for £270

+13

Princess Diana’s ‘preppy’ fashion has been a huge hit with Gen Z this year and can be seen in all the major high street shops

I couldn’t think of a better role model for my youngest sister, who is 18.

Diana was a woman extraordinarily ahead of her time. A woman after Gen Z’s own hearts before they even existed.

She knew the power of her image and the power of tactical self-projection and played with this – think of the scene in the latest series of The Crown in which Debicki as Diana bargains with photographers, saying they can take photographs of her in her leopard print swimsuit if they agree to leave her alone for the rest of the day.

This is exactly what Gen Z do on Instagram – they play with the power of their image and self-project in a clever, considered and curated way to influence public perception of themselves. Step aside, Kim K. Please, Diana was the original influencer.

And less seriously (but still seriously – clothes are important and not stupid, thank you), every generation can benefit from and delight in devouring Diana’s surreptitiously-communicative style.

What a revelation it was when I realised Diana used clothes to talk when she was gagged.

The clothing companies she loved have enjoyed a revival thanks to a new generation’s fascination with her.

Warm & Wonderful, makers of that black sheep sweater, are back as of 2020. Gottex re-released Diana’s leopard print swimming costume this year.

+13

Eloise Moran’s viral Instagram account @ladydirevengelooks boasts 114k followers

+13

Princess Diana wearing the Gottex leopard print swimsuit in 1997

+13

The Gottex Diana halter neck swimsuit is available to buy this year for £199.99

+13

The Princess of Wales at Alton Towers in her Philadelphia Eagles varsity jacket

+13

The iconic ’90s Eagles Letterman Jacket returned and was modelled by the beautiful Kylie Kelce, wife of Jason Kelce who plays for Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles made available to the public a jacket they made for Diana in the ‘90s for the first time ever last month.

The list goes on. In June, supermodel and Gen Z quasi-deity Kendall Jenner walked the runway at Jacquemus’ Princess Diana-inspired fashion show in Paris in a recreated version of Diana’s iconic pearl and sapphire choker.

I think Diana would have been pleased with 2023. She would have been pleased that what mattered to her most – her work for the repressed and voiceless – has gained a new audience.

Even if said audience does begin just by obsessing just over her vintage sweatshirts.