Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Princess Diana’s dark-blue, figure- hugging gown is on show more than two decades after she wore it to spin around the White House ballroom with John Travolta.

The outfit was much admired in 1985 when the 24-year-old, married to the Prince of Wales, danced with the “Saturday Night Fever” disco star. It can be seen at Kensington Palace -- a London royal residence now getting a 12-million-pound ($20 million) revamp, of which 8 million pounds have been raised.

The memory of the princess, who died aged 36 in a Paris car crash in 1997, has revived interest in the palace where she lived. While the residence has housed other royals -- Queen Mary II, Queen Victoria (when she was still a princess), and the late Princess Margaret (sister of Queen Elizabeth II) -- Diana is the biggest draw, and curators don’t seem to mind.

“We’re delighted by it,” says Lee Prosser, a curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages five royal abodes in London. “You can’t expect people to have an interest in some of these more remote figures in history.”

Also on view is a tweed suit that Diana took on her honeymoon with Prince Charles in Balmoral, Scotland. The outfits are part of a show that runs until mid-March 2010, and is illustrated with images of the functions where they were worn.

“You can’t see the apartment where she lived,” Prosser explains. “It’s on the private side of the palace, and getting to it would mean going through other private areas which are currently occupied.”

Underground Hub

Once the refurbishment is complete, tourists will access the grounds more easily. An underground hub with a cafe, cloakroom and shop will be built, not unlike the one beneath the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. Displays will be updated, education rooms will be opened, children will get in free, and barriers between the palace and park will come down.

“The building has become divorced from its landscape,” explains Prosser. Now that “high-profile” residents such as Diana and Margaret have passed away, he says, “there’s less of a need for high railings and the foliage screening.”

Kensington Palace was originally a country home, bought for 20,000 pounds in 1689 by King William III and Queen Mary II; the king was asthmatic and wanted something less damp than Whitehall. Architect Christopher Wren built new wings, and the royal couple moved in at the end of 1689. Kensington was the royals’ main home for seven decades until Buckingham Palace replaced it in 1760.

Victoria’s Room

A highlight of the modern-day visit is the room where Victoria was awakened in June 1837 to be told that she was now queen. It has one of her beds, her writing desk, and paintings that she and husband Prince Albert gave each other on special occasions.

Once the revamp is complete, visitors, who currently must snake their way through the whole palace to see any one part of it, will be able to pick and choose which section to view. One trail will be inspired by princesses who’ve lived in the palace, including Diana and Margaret.

Parts of Princess Margaret’s former apartments are now open to the public, though they have been emptied of their furnishings. The apartments were handed over to Historic Royal Palaces by the Queen on condition that they not be turned into a shrine to her sister.

Off-limits is Margaret’s large and airy bedroom, currently undergoing refurbishment. It lies empty, with three bay windows overlooking her private garden, a beautiful enclosure with chamomile grass and sculpted trees.

Park Gate

To the left of her garden wall is a gate to Kensington Park that people used even while the princess still lived. “She could see them, but they couldn’t see her,” says Prosser.

Margaret’s former living quarters are being used for an amusing exhibition on debutantes -- those young girls who were presented to the Queen before becoming well-to-do wives and mothers. The Queen’s last debutante ball was held in 1958. “Once you’d come out at court, you had arrived in society,” says Prosser. “Until you’d been presented, you were nobody.”

Displays -- all loans from ex-debutantes -- include dresses, stilettos, corsets, petticoats and wax depilatory refills. Debutantes spent their days shopping, learning to curtsey and dance, and getting their hair done.

A video in the next room teaches viewers how to curtsey. Footsteps traced on the parquet of what was once Princess Margaret’s apartment indicate dancing steps.

In the funniest section, we crack the codes used by debutantes and their mothers to describe potential prospects: “FU” (“financially unsound”), “MTF” (“must touch flesh”), and “NSIT” (“not safe in taxis”).

When will Diana’s apartments become part of the visit? “It’s still rather too close to us in terms of time,” replies Prosser. “Perhaps in the future, that apartment may be opened to the public, but who can say at the moment?”

To contact the writer on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at Farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 18, 2009 19:00 EST