When Julien's Auctions held the largest-ever sale of Princess Diana's outfits in June, royal fans around the world wondered who would end up purchasing one particular dress. The late princess's blue floral "Caring Dress" was worn nine times in Diana's lifetime and was given its nickname because she often chose it for events involving children. For Renae Plant, founder of the Princess Diana Museum, the dress has a touching personal connection—and by a "miracle" she was able to acquire it in the auction. Now the dress, along with a number of other Princess Diana styles, will be heading on tour across the United States in 2026.
Plant and Diana's former hairstylist, Richard Dalton, who co-wrote It's All About the Hair: My Decade With Diana, spoke to Marie Claire ahead of the duo's book signing and talk in Richmond, Virginia on August 30. "I haven't shared with anybody yet, but we are bringing the Princess Diana Museum out next year for the first time—all the pieces that we've acquired—and it's going to be at the Ronald Reagan Library," Plant shares.
The library, located in Simi Valley, California, will be the first host of the tour, which is being put on in conjunction with EDG, global experts in cultural exhibitions. Diana's outfits will be on display at the presidential library in September 2026 and Plant shares that the traveling exhibit will then move "all around America" including cities such as New York. The museum founder adds that her "dream" would be for there to be a "permanent display" in the U.K. one day.
Plant and her husband, Livinio Stuyck Sanchez, pose with Diana's Caring Dress after winning it at auction.
Items in the museum's collection fans can expect to see on tour include pieces from designers like Catherine Walker and Versace, along with Diana's famous black sheep sweater, which Plant and Dalton will be bringing to Virginia with them for their book signing.
Discussing her recent acquisition of the Caring Dress, Plant says she still can't believe she placed the winning bid of $400,000 because "everyone was expecting it to go for over a million dollars." Along with wanting to acquire the famous Bellville Sassoon dress for obvious reasons, the style is especially important to Plant because she met Princess Diana as a child in Australia when the royal was wearing the very same outfit.
"I was praying to angels. I was like, these miracles need to happen. I got my 333 number, I sat in the front row, and I was shaking. I was literally shaking," she says of the auction, which took place on June 26 at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Luckily, fate (and perhaps Diana herself) was on Plant's side when it came time to bid on the Bellville Sassoon dress.
Princess Diana's iconic black sheep sweater is part of the museum's collection.
Princess Diana wore her Caring Dress on a 1991 visit to Brazil while meeting abandoned children, many of whom were HIV positive.
"It sounds like a lot of money, but $400,000 for a dress like that is unheard of," Plant says. "But can I tell you why—there was some glitch in the system, and whoever is my other bidder ended up not being online and was unable to bid."
Thanks to the person's absence, Plant was able to secure the dress for the final cost of $520,000, once fees were added in. "So Diana was up there looking over Miss Renae down here," she tells Marie Claire. Thanks to the bargain price she got the Caring Dress for, Plant was also able to acquire Diana's Catherine Walker "Falcon" gown, joking, "it was like two for the price of one."
The Falcon Dress, which Diana wore on her 1986 tour of Saudi Arabia, is especially important to the museum's collection because Diana was never photographed in the piece. Dalton, in fact, is the only person who saw her in the gown outside of the private event where she visited the country's Sheikhas in their harem. The Catherine Walker design will be displayed at the August 30 book signing, held a day before the 28th anniversary of Diana's death.
Plant is seen with Diana's Falcon Dress.
Plant and Richard Dalton co-wore It's All About the Hair, chronicling Dalton's time working with Princess Diana.
A video of Plant falling to the floor in shock when she won the dress went viral, and the museum founder shares that moment was "just pure emotion and joy." The museum founder adds she even "kissed Kody, the auctioneer."
The Princess Diana Museum is unique in the sense that it's an entirely digital royal collection. The pieces are housed in an interactive 3-D environment and along with clothing, other personal artifacts such as cassette tapes and letters are included in the museum, with more than 2,700 items in total. In It's All About the Hair, readers can scan special QR codes that take them to exhibits in the online museum, making it an interactive experience.
Reflecting on adding the Caring Dress to her collection, Plant tells Marie Claire, "I knew she [Diana] wanted that dress to be in the Princess Diana Museum, to represent exactly who she is. The kindness, the compassion, the children, the humanity—you know, that just signifies absolutely everything that she stood for. And to be able to have it as the feature in the museum, it's just mind-blowing."
Tickets are now available for Renae Plant and Richard Dalton's book signing on August 30 at the Dominion Energy Center at Mooney Hall in Richmond, Virginia.
