No year in the history of the CFDA Fashion Awards was as anticipated as 1995.

That January, the Princess of Wales, who tragically passed away on this day 20 years ago, attended the Awards to present her close friend, confidante and Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar Elizabeth Tilberis with a special award for her accomplishments at the magazine.

The presence of the world’s ultimate fashion icon created much buzz, with large crowds gathered outside Lincoln Center.

What will she wear? Where will she sit? What is she going to say about Liz, who was so beloved by the American fashion industry? Is she relocating to Manhattan (as was speculated at the time)?

Arriving by Concorde that morning, the Princess was formally received at the New York State Theater that evening by Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Bill Blass. She wore a navy crepe dress by Catherine Walker, a fellow Brit, with an impressive pearl choker around her neck. Her hair was slicked back.

At the time, the Washington Post described the scene—which included Lauren Hutton, Karl Lagerfeld, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Rivers, Victor Alfaro, Isaac Mizrahi, Claudia Schiffer and Nadja Auermann – as “a nearly delirious slice of New York’s fashion and social worlds.”

“Like a queen,” Karan told WWD when asked how the Princess was. The fashion bible also documented the funniest quip of the night: “Well — the queen of Queens gets to meet the Princess of Wales!” said Fran Drescher as she presented an award to Cynthia Rowley. “She mentioned that we were both on Mr. Blackwell’s list, she on the best-dressed, and me on the worst.”

When the Princess took to the stage, she was greeted with a shout from a man in the gallery: “Move to New York.” She rewarded him with her signature smile.

“Ladies and gentleman, I am immensely proud to be here in New York with you all,” Diana told the audience, “to be giving this award to a lady of my own country, who is also a dear friend and whose talent and courage has been an inspiration to us all.”

Tilberis took the stage, and following a curtesy, thanked the Princess and the American fashion industry with her signature warmth.

Seeing these two fashion stars together proved to be a poignant moment: Tilberis, who had been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in December 1993 and wrote about this and Diana’s passing in her 1998 autobiography No Time To Die, lost her fight to the disease less than two years after Diana’s death.