The famous “revenge dress” that wowed the nation when worn by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is going up for auction.
The dress, Designed by Christina Stambolian, quickly became a fashion statement after it was worn by Diana during a Vanity Fair fundraising dinner at the Serpentine Gallery in London.
She hit headlines when she was photographed wearing the black silk gown in 1994, it was dubbed the “revenge dress” because she wore it on the same evening that Prince Charles publicly confessed to his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles in the documentary, Charles: The Private Man, The Public Role.
Diana, who died aged 36 in 1997, also turned heads with the outfit as it broke traditional expectations of royal dress with its colour, its plunging neckline and its above-the-knee hemline.
Stambolian has previously said that Diana had wanted to wear the dress for a while but had deemed it too risqué.
“[The princess] chose not to play the scene like Odette, innocent in white,” she said. “She was clearly angry. She played it like Odile, in black. She wore bright red nail enamel, which we had never seen her do before. She was saying, ‘Let’s be wicked tonight!’”
Late Vogue editor Anna Harvey, who worked as Diana’s stylist for many years, told the publication: “She wanted to look a million dollars – and she did.”
It is now expected to sell for a huge £220,000 when it goes under the hammer. It will also be on display in London next month ahead of the sale.
The dress will be up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York in December as part of its luxury week and is estimated to sell for between 150,000 and 300,000 dollars (£110,000 to £220,000).
It marks its first sale since June 1997 when Diana sold 79 of her dresses to raise funds to benefit cancer and Aids charities.
Part of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, which is dedicated to funding extra care, equipment and projects.
It will also be sold alongside a copy of the original catalogue, numbered and signed by Diana and Greek designer Stambolian, crediting the Prince of Wales with the idea of the charity fundraiser.
The “revenge dress” will embark on a global exhibition tour ahead of its live sale on December 9 – stopping at Sotheby’s locations Hong Kong, Geneva and New York where it will be on display.
The public can also view the dress in London and it will be on display at Sotheby’s auction house in the capital from September 18 to September 24.
Diana originally wore the dress with a choker made from a royal brooch, a black clutch and black pumps, and the elegant ensemble has been widely hailed for inspiring decades of fashion and popular culture.
The consignor, who bought the dress during its original 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.
“It went from a cocktail dress to a statement in the time it took to photograph her.
“Thirty years on, you can say the words anywhere in the world and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean.”
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.
“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.”
Ms Halimi praised Princess Diana for turning the dress into a “powerful message” during one of the most “scrutinised and emotionally charged episodes of her life”.
“What became a global viral moment – long before social media made the term mundane – also 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,” she added.
“What has endured across the decades is not the scandal surrounding that evening, but Princess 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.”
