Princess Diana’s iconic “revenge dress” will go on public display at Sotheby’s London auction house from September 18 to 24, giving the public a rare chance to see one of the most celebrated garments in modern fashion history before it heads to sale.
The black silk gown, created by Greek designer Christina Stambolian, is set to be auctioned in New York on December 9 as part of Sotheby’s luxury week, with an estimated price tag of between £110,000 and £220,000.
It will be the first time the dress has changed hands since June 1997, when Diana herself sold 79 of her gowns to raise money for cancer and Aids charities.
Diana made headlines around the world when she stepped out in the striking gown at a Vanity Fair fundraising dinner held at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1994.
Princess Diana’s iconic ‘revenge dress’ will go on public display at Sotheby’s London auction house from September 18 to 24, giving the public a rare chance to see one of the most celebrated garments in modern fashion history before it heads to sale
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PA
The occasion coincided with the evening her then-husband, the Prince of Wales, publicly confessed to his infidelity during a televised interview broadcast to the nation.
With its daring plunging neckline, above-the-knee hemline and bold black colour, the outfit defied conventional expectations of how a member of the Royal Family should dress.
The ensemble Diana chose for that evening, paired with a choker fashioned from a royal brooch, a Salvatore Ferragamo clutch bag and Manolo Blahnik heels, has since been widely credited with influencing decades of fashion and popular culture.
Diana was 36 when she died in 1997.
Designed by Christina Stambolian, the dress quickly became a fashion statement after it was worn by Diana during a Vanity Fair fundraising dinner at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1994
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SOTHEBY’S
Ahead of the December auction, the dress will travel on a global exhibition tour, stopping at Sotheby’s locations in Hong Kong, Geneva and New York.
The lot will include a copy of the original sale catalogue, numbered and signed by both Diana and Ms Stambolian, which credits the Prince of Wales with having conceived the idea for the 1997 charity fundraiser.
A portion of the auction proceeds will go to NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, an organisation focused on funding additional care, equipment and projects.
The sale places the garment back in the spotlight more than three decades after it first captivated the nation, offering collectors a chance to acquire what has become one of the most recognisable pieces of clothing in modern history.
The black silk gown, created by Greek designer Christina Stambolian, is set to be auctioned in New York on December 9 as part of Sotheby’s luxury week, with an estimated price tag of between £110,000 and £220,000
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GETTY
The person who consigned the dress, having purchased it during Diana’s original 1997 sale, said: “My late husband and I knew that this dress was something special.
“Princess Diana was walking into the worst night of her life and you would never know it to look at her.”
They described how the garment was transformed in an instant: “It went from a cocktail dress to a statement in the time it took to photograph her.”
The consignor also reflected on the enduring global recognition the outfit commands three decades on: “30 years on, you can say the words anywhere in the world, and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean.”
The late Princess of Wales talking to Lord Gowrie, chairman of the Arts Council of England
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PA
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, spoke of the garment’s deeper significance: “Fashion can be a language when words fail or are simply not enough. Princess Diana understood that instinctively.”
She highlighted that the dress’s power lay not simply in who wore it or the global attention it attracted at the Serpentine event, but rather in “what it communicated.”
Ms Halimi described how Diana turned the gown into a “powerful message” during one of the most “scrutinised and emotionally charged episodes of her life.”
She added that the moment “gave licence to anyone, but especially women, to use fashion beyond adornment and much more intentionally and meaningfully: as a shield, a weapon or both.”
What has lasted across the decades, Ms Halimi said, is not the scandal but Diana’s “show of confidence and self-possession. She walked into a moment in which so much of her story was being told for her and, through what she chose to wear, reclaimed the narrative for herself.”