The casual attire she chose for her final summer while cruising through the Mediterranean on various sun-soaked vacations with Prince William, Prince Harry and new boyfriend Dodi Fayed was symbolic in more ways than one.

Gone were the fancy designer gowns (having literally just sold them in a high-profile auction at Christie’s in Manhattan earlier that year) and embracing a new phase in her life post-divorce from Prince Charles, the summer of 1997 was a time of sartorial metamorphosis for the princess, as depicted in the opening episodes of season six of The Crown.

“If you look at the wedding dress, which is humongous and very over the top, and then you get to the revenge dress and then you strip it right back to the swimwear,” Sidonie Roberts, one of the show’s costume designers explains to PEOPLE. “There’s this sense of exposing and allowing yourself to unfold. There’s an actual unfolding. We said it [was] like the cocooned butterfly.”

For that fateful summer, just months before her death in Paris on August 31, Princess Diana was seen in a perfectly curated collection of swimsuits (a crew member confirms she packed very little else!). Many of them were bespoke designs by the Israeli brand Gottex, whose founder Leah Gottlieb met with the princess in London and offered to supply her with some one-off pieces for her upcoming trip to St. Tropez where she was due to spend time on Dodi’s father Mohammed Al Fayed’s yacht.

The opening episode of season six of the Netflix drama shows exactly that. Wearing a medley of stylish one-piece swimsuits, from glamorous leopard print to vivid lime green and purple ombre, actress Elizabeth Debicki showcases Diana’s new less-is-more approach brilliantly, wearing swimsuits recreated by the same brand.

So iconic were the looks that Gottex recently launched a limited edition version of Diana’s leopard print design, which the royal wore to try and steer the paparazzi gaze away from her children during her first trip to the South of France with the Al Fayed’s, in a scene recreated in the show. The “Diana” collection features two versions of the animal print design, with prices starting from $160.

 In another scene from part one of the final season (part two premieres on Dec. 14), Diana is seen wearing a low-back Tiffany blue swimsuit, her back to the camera, re-creating one of the final and most poignant paparazzi images of Diana. Caught in a reflective moment, perched on the end of a diving board on Fayed’s yacht staring out into the endless ocean, it’s also the image Netflix chose for the cover.

“I really love the blue swimsuit that Diana wears when she walks out to the end of the diving board and sits down,” Debicki recently told Harper’s Bazaar, adding; “There was just something about that swimsuit and recreating that moment that felt very sacred and important, and it was very important we got it right.”

 Testament to the longevity of her style status, one-piece swimsuits have been flying off the shelves since the new season premiered. According to Google, searches for “one-piece swimsuit” skyrocketed 176% worldwide and 333% in the U.S. Searches for “blue swimsuit” also soared by 158% worldwide and a staggering 846% in the U.S.

According to Jacques Azagury, her go-to designer during the last decade of her life, the style transition we saw during those final months had been a long time coming.

“It was the time of the supermodel, and everyone was wearing more body-conscious dresses and she was super fit,” the Moroccan-born, London-based designer tells PEOPLE. “After the break-up of the marriage, she rediscovered herself and she turned into this unbelievably stunning woman, that’s when her personality really started to shine.”

 Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

On whether he thinks the moments they shared nearly 40 years ago seem like a lifetime ago, he shakes his head: “No, it seems like it was yesterday because she is ever-present and still so prominent.”