Princess Diana's cocktail dress, dubbed the “revenge dress”, will be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York. She wore it in public on the day Prince Charles confessed to his infidelity. The auction house estimates the dress could cost between $150,000 and $300,000.
The outfit by Greek designer Christina Stambolian will first be shown to the public at Sotheby's London – the exhibition will be held from September 18 to 24 during Fashion Week. The dress will then be presented in Hong Kong and Geneva before heading to New York. There it will be on view for the last time in Sotheby's Breuer Building from December 2 until the auction on December 9.
The Princess of Wales wore a tight, off-the-shoulder black dress on June 29, 1994, the day a documentary was released in which her husband, now King Charles III, admitted to having an extramarital affair. The British media reported his recognition a few days before the premiere, and the film itself was subsequently watched by about 13 million people across the country.
That evening, Diana abandoned her Valentino dress at the last minute and chose an off-the-shoulder black silk dress with an asymmetrical hem and a chiffon train. She accessorized the dress with a pearl and sapphire necklace, a Salvatore Ferragamo clutch and Manolo Blahnik shoes. Before this, the outfit remained untouched in her wardrobe for about three years – in the royal family, black is traditionally considered appropriate primarily during mourning and funerals.
“On her own terms, Princess Diana turned this dress into one of the most powerful messages she has ever made, and during one of the most closely discussed and emotionally charged periods of her life. Decades later, what remains is not the scandal surrounding that evening, but Princess Diana's display of confidence and composure. She found herself in a situation where much of her story was told for her by others, but through what she chose to wear, Diana reclaimed the power to define the narrative for herself,” said Morgan Halimi, head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby’s.
The last time the “revenge dress” was sold at auction was in June 1997 during the princess’s lifetime. Then Diana put up 79 of her outfits for auction to raise funds for charities fighting breast cancer and AIDS, Sotheby's reported.
As CNN notes, the final price of the dress may exceed the preliminary estimate: in recent years, even Princess Diana's lesser-known outfits were sold significantly more than expected. So, in 2023, one of her dresses was auctioned for $604,000, and the famous sweater with sheep was sold for more than $1 million in the same year.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to the NHS Lothian Charity in support of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
