Princess Diana’s famous “revenge dress” is to return to auction in New York this December, with Sotheby’s estimating that the black silk gown could fetch up to $US300,000 (£220,000).
The Christina Stambolian design will be offered during Sotheby’s Luxury Week on December 9, marking its first appearance at auction since Diana sold it as part of a charity sale in 1997.
Diana wore the dress to a Vanity Fair fundraising dinner at London’s Serpentine Gallery on June 29, 1994. That same evening, the then Prince of Wales publicly acknowledged his infidelity during a televised interview.
The outfit immediately attracted worldwide attention, challenging conventional expectations of royal dress with its black colour, plunging neckline and above-the-knee hemline. It later became known as the “revenge dress”.
Princess Diana’s revenge dress to go on display
Before the New York sale, the gown will be shown at Sotheby’s in London from September 18 to 24. It will then travel to Hong Kong and Geneva before returning to New York for an exhibition ahead of the auction.
The dress is expected to sell for between $US150,000 and $US300,000, equivalent to about £110,000 to £220,000. Part of the proceeds will be donated to NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, supporting additional care, equipment and projects.
It will be sold with a numbered and signed copy of the original catalogue from Diana’s 1997 clothing sale, bearing the signatures of the princess and Stambolian.
Diana sold 79 dresses at that auction to raise money for cancer and Aids charities. She died aged 36 in August 1997.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said: “Fashion can be a language when words fail or are simply not enough.”
“Princess Diana understood that instinctively,” she added. “What makes this dress extraordinary is not merely that it was worn by the princess, nor that its appearance at the Serpentine event made headlines around the world. It is what it communicated.”
