Say Goodbye to Your Ex, Hello to Your New Style: 5 Stars Who Took Their Breakup as a Fashion Opportunity

A breakup is always a traumatic experience, especially when it plays out in front of a worldwide audience with the media discussing every detail. This is one kind of situation where being a celeb actually sucks. And yet, while some people get depressed, others take it as an opportunity to reinvent themselves and become stronger, more confident and more fashionable.

We’ve collected for you the stories of 5 female celebrities that completely reinvented themselves after a breakup.

Princess Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales, always had a flamboyant personality which manifested, among other things, in the way she dressed. Her wedding photos are quintessential 1980s fashion: the bright colours, the crazy prints, the accentuated shapes, the lot. However, she actually gravitated towards a more subdued style at the time, as was required by her status as a member of the royal family.

But everything changed after her divorce. It opened the floodgates, Lady Di could finally be herself: stylish, confident and stunningly beautiful. From the revenge dress until her dying day, she always remained a fashion trendsetter.

Katy Perry

Most people will probably have forgotten this by now, but at one time Katy Perry dated Orlando Bloom and they broke up. Katy went public about her breakup in February 2017: according to her, Orlando was having an affair with someone else.

Just one month later, she turned up for a public event as a completely different person with short blonde hair instead of her up-to-that-point usual curls or a dyed wig. Her old cartoonish outfits were forever abandoned for provokingly androgynous getups.

Ariana Grande

Future bride Ariana Grande has already been engaged once – however, that engagement had to be broken off. She had to break up with comedian Pete Davidson literally on the eve of their wedding. Some time after the official breakup, she went and got a new hairdo. Many women like to change their hair when they go through big life changes and Ariana is one of them. And not only did she get a shorter haircut, she also got rid of her ponytail.

For a time, she even became a platinum blonde. Grande's style of dress also changed: she started wearing more revealing items. This last trend continued into her new relationship. More recently, she also got several tattoos.

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber’s relationship began and evolved literally before our very eyes: we can still remember them as teenagers. But everything runs its course and comes to an end, eventually, so these two broke up in 2012. After that they had an on-again-off-again relationship for a short time, but they were past the point of no return.

Selena finally took a short break from her career and then went back to work with a new image: more mature and more daring with a new style and new hair. Today she’s considered one of the most stylish performers in show business.

Reese Witherspoon

Reese’s marriage to fellow actor Ryan Philippe was so intense that only their eventual breakup could rival it in intensity. Like many other freshly minted female divorcees Reese celebrated her newly acquired freedom with a new haircut (she got rid of her bangs) and a bunch of new outfits, one of which was a skimpy canary yellow dress in the style of Lady Di’s famous revenge dress.

Reese’s Nina Ricci bustier dress made such a splash at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards that the press called it the best red carpet look of that year.