Topline
One of Princess Diana’s most recognizable gowns—donned for one of her final photo shoots—will go up for auction this month in a rare sale, marking only the second time the dress has been available for purchase as the princess remains a fixture of pop culture even more than two decades after her death.
Photographer Mario Testino poses in front of a photograph he took of Diana wearing the gown, during ... [+]
Key Facts
The deep purple silk and velvet dress coming to auction is a strapless ball gown with a tulip-shaped skirt by British dressmaker Victor Edelstein, who designed gowns for Diana for more than a decade.
While the gown was part of Edelstein’s Autumn 1989 collection, the original design sketch featured the outline of a tiara on the page’s margins, which auction house Sotheby’s said may have indicated he had Diana in mind when designing the dress.
Diana wore the dress multiple times over a nearly decade-long period, including in a 1991 royal portrait shot by her aunt-in-law Princess Margaret’s then husband Lord Snowdon.
It also featured in Diana’s iconic 1997 Vanity Fair spread with famed fashion photographer Mario Testino done just months before her death, in a photo shoot that has been credited with helping to immortalize the princess’ place in fashion and culture.
The gown is expected to sell for as much as $120,000 when it goes to auction in New York on January 27, Sotheby’s said, noting that it is the first time in 25 years that the dress has come up for sale.
The aubergine Victor Edelstein dress will appear at auction this for the first time in 25 years.
Key Background
The dress first made its way into private hands in 1997, when, just months before Diana died in a car accident, she set up a charity auction with Christie’s to sell off 79 of her most iconic gowns. The sale was widely seen as the princess making a new start after officially divorcing the now King Charles III the year before. She modeled many of the gowns—including the Victor Edelstein dress up for sale—in the Vanity Fair photo shoot to publicize the auction. It turned out to be a success, raising nearly $3.3 million for cancer and AIDS charities. The bestselling dress that night was the gown Diana wore when she danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985. The gown, also designed by Victor Edelstein, sold for $222,500. What is known as the “Travolta dress” most recently changed hands in 2019, when a private owner sold the gown for $347,000 to Historic Royal Palaces, the U.K. nonprofit that manages palaces across Britain. In 2020, the dress was put on display at Kensington Palace, the royal residence where Diana lived for more than 15 years. Part of the auction was another one of Diana’s most famous gowns, the “revenge dress” she wore to a 1994 event the day an interview aired of Charles admitting he had been unfaithful during their marriage. The Christina Stambolian dress was purchased for $74,000 by Scottish businessman Graeme Mackenzie. The Mackenzie family reportedly keeps the dress in a bank vault, and the gown has rarely been displayed since the 1997 auction.
A view of the gown's back shows the button detailing.
News Peg
Diana’s sons, Princes Harry and William, have made headlines this week after excerpts of Harry’s upcoming memoir leaked and revealed claims that William physically pushed Harry to the ground during a 2019 argument.
Tangent
Last year marked 25 years since Diana died in a tragic car accident in Paris. She remains a popular figure of public fascination and continues to be portrayed in books, movies, television and other media, like the Netflix smash hit The Crown and in director Pablo Larraín’s 2021 film Spencer, which landed star Kristin Stewart her first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of the princess.
Diana at a private reception to mark the 1997 charity auction of a collection of her gowns.
Further Reading
Princess Diana: 25 Years After Death She Reigns As Pop Icon (Forbes)
