Campbell Addy for Sotheby's/Cove via Reuters Connect
Princess Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ comes to auction at Sotheby’s, may fetch up to $377,000
· The Straits Times- Princess Diana's iconic 1994 "revenge dress" is up for auction at Sotheby's, expected to fetch up to £220,000 (S$377,050) during Luxury Week in New York on Dec 9.
- The black silk gown, designed by Christina Stambolian, was worn the same night Prince Charles admitted infidelity, symbolising Diana's confident public statement.
- The dress will be exhibited in London, Hong Kong, and Geneva before the auction, marking its first public display in nearly 30 years.
The “revenge dress” worn by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1994 is up for auction at Sotheby’s for the first time in nearly three decades.
The black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian is estimated to fetch as much as £220,000 (S$377,050) when it goes on sale on Dec 9 during Sotheby’s Luxury Week in New York, the auction house said on Sept 10.
Diana wore the dress in June 1994 as she arrived at the Serpentine Gallery in London for a fund-raising dinner. It gained notoriety because the then Prince Charles (now King Charles III) – from whom she had been separated for nearly two years but not yet divorced – was widely expected to say in a national television interview broadcast that same evening that he had been unfaithful to her.
According to a later documentary, her decision to wear the dress was a last-minute one after initially setting aside a more traditional Valentino outfit. “She wanted to look a million dollars,” her former stylist Anna Harvey said on the programme, according to Vogue. “And she did.”
Stambolian’s off-the-shoulder dress features an asymmetric hemline and chiffon train. It will make its first public appearance at Sotheby’s in London during Fashion Week from Sept 17 to 21, followed by further exhibitions in Hong Kong and Geneva, before it goes to New York for the auction.
The dress was previously sold at auction in 1997, according to Sotheby’s, without giving details.
In 2023, a black, ballerina-length velvet gown owned by Diana was sold at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood for US$1,148,080 (S$1.45 million), 11 times its estimated price.
Charles and Diana were divorced in 1996 and she died in a car crash in Paris the following year at age 36. BLOOMBERG