In the course of reality TV’s 20-some-odd years golden era, a cheating scandal is almost as certain as a public screaming match in an unsuspecting local restaurant. In today’s reality TV climate, however, scandals, wrongdoings, and grievances—and how these stars choose to address them—have the power to reverberate much farther, thanks to social media and their various fandoms.
A fascinating PR strategy in controlling these types of messy narratives comes in the now largely expected rebuttal to any scandal: the revenge dress. It’s a topic that is once again at the forefront of fans’ minds thanks to the Bravo betrayal du jour by Summer House cast members Amanda Batula and West Wilson in the wake of their respective relationships with Kyle Cooke and Ciara Miller. And on part one of the Summer House reunion, which aired this week, Miller entered the stage in an illusion two-piece dress from fashion insider fave Di Petsa’s spring 2026 collection that could only be classified in modern terms as, well, a revenge dress. “Di Petsa is one of those designers that creates pieces that instantly make you feel confident and powerful the second you put them on,” Miller tells Vogue. “For me, it was less about the dress itself and more about how I felt walking into the room—just feeling fully confident in myself.”
The concept was originally coined when Princess Diana wore a black cocktail dress, designed by Christina Stambolian, during a very public outing on the same night that King Charles admitted to infidelity on national television in 1994. Now, the royal wasn’t a reality TV star per se, but she, the dress, and King Charles’s affair, were certainly the face of a rapidly changing popular culture and media landscape, as demonstrated by the fact the dress now has its own Wikipedia page. Its form-fitting silhouette and off-the-shoulder cut were, believe it or not, quite daring for its time, and, at the very least, were a significant departure from the modest habits of royal dressing. The idea of a revenge dress quickly became a sartorial marker of the start of a new phase of life, and other famous examples followed suit, such as Mariah Carey’s sexy Calvin Klein two-piece ensemble at the 1997 MTV Music Video Awards or Elizabeth Hurley’s plunging Valentino gown in 2000.
