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It’s the fashion moment that grabbed headlines and gave the world the term “revenge dressing”.
On 29 June 1994, Diana, Princess of Wales wore a black, fitted, off-the-shoulder dress to a fundraising dinner hosted by Vanity Fair for the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. As stunning as the head-turning garment was, it had symbolic weight, as Diana wore it the same night then-Prince Charles would reveal his infidelity with Camilla on TV.
“Diana wore the dress in June 1994 to the Serpentine Gallery, the same night Prince Charles admitted his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles”, celebrity stylist and royal commentator Leroy Dawkins previously told Euronews Culture. “It was not her first-choice dress to wear that night; she was going to wear Valentino, but it was leaked what she would be wearing, so Diana chose to wear the now notorious revenge dress, which was designed by Christina Stambolian”.
The dress was quickly labelled “the Revenge Dress” by the media and rose to fame as a Royal protocol-breaking statement of empowerment and a way for Diana to control the narrative.
Now, for the first time since 1997, it is up for auction.
In December, Sotheby’s will sell the dress with an estimate of $150,000 to $300,000 (approx. €130,000 – €258,000).
This month it will go on display at the auction house in London, before travelling to Hong Kong, Geneva and New York, where it will be sold.
Part of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
“Fashion can be a language when words fail or are simply not enough. Princess Diana understood that instinctively,” said Morgane Halimi, head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby’s, in a statement. “On her own terms, Princess Diana turned the dress into one of the most powerful messages she ever made, during one of the most scrutinised and emotionally charged episodes of her life.”
Halimi added: “What has endured across the decades is not the scandal surrounding that evening, but Princess Diana’s show of confidence and self-possession.”
The dress will be unveiled at Sotheby’s London on 18 September and displayed until 24 September 24. It arrives in New York on 2 December.