Princess Diana’s fashion legacy endures — and Cardi B’s latest look is proof. The 31-year-old Grammy winner was spotted out and about in an outfit that mirrors one worn by the late royal. While doing some shopping in Los Angeles on Monday, June 24, Cardi wore a white crewneck sweatshirt with “Harvard” written on it.
The vintage design matched the same one Diana wore in 1997, and Cardi replicated the rest of Diana’s look with a pair of white bike shorts, high-top sneakers, crew socks, a black handbag and a pair of black sunglasses, which she carried with her. She topped off the look with a chain choker necklace and even sported a short hairstyle that paid homage to Diana’s signature cut.
On Instagram Stories, Cardi B shared a closer look at her hairstyle while showing off a new piercing.
“I came here for one thing and look what Harrison did to me,” the singer said in the clip, showing off her ear decked out with piercings. She also tagged her piercer, Harrison McCall.
Diana’s athleisure looks have been as influential as the many formal looks she wore throughout her reign as the most famous woman in the world. Her penchant for oversized sweatshirts and athletic shorts, paired with her ability to make even the most casual ensemble look chic, solidified her status as a fashion icon — and she remains influential nearly 27 years after her August 1997 death in a Paris car crash.
At the height of her fame, Diana purposefully wore casual attire as a tool to evade paparazzi. One of her favorite items, a navy blue Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt, sold for $53,532 in a 2019 auction, according to Boston-based RR Auction.
She mostly wore the item, which was a gift from Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and featured the “Flying Lady” logo, to and from gym sessions in an effort to bore photographers.
“Every single session all the media were outside camped with their stepladders, and cameras and lenses and everything,” Jenni Rivett, Diana’s longtime personal trainer, recalled in a 2018 interview with the Yahoo! series The Royal Box. “For her, she just found it so incredibly, ‘Why are they so interested in me when there are more important things to worry about in the world?’ It wasn’t her that asked for all this. I remember one of her strategies was that she was going to wear the same Virgin Active sweatshirt every single session.”
Diana had gifted Rivett the sweatshirt, and when it was presented at auction, the trainer wrote letters to accompany the sale.
“This sweatshirt was given to HRH by Sir Richard Branson. It became her most worn top on her regular visits to the gym. She felt there were far more important issues to focus on in the world than her gym attire and therefore decided that wearing the famous Virgin sweatshirt to every session, would be a good way to stop the media frenzy!” Rivett wrote in part. “A few months before her untimely death, she called me to say she had left a few sweatshirts for me. Amongst them, this one — which I have now decided to part with.”
