Princess Diana’s “Extraordinary” Revenge Dress Goes To Auction With a Six-Figure Price Tag
"Thirty years on, you can say the words anywhere in the world and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean."
There are a few fashion icons synonymous with Princess Diana: her sapphire engagement ring, her red sheep-print sweater, and the Revenge Dress. Princess Diana’s famous little black dress became an instant legend when she stepped out at the Serpentine Gallery in Christina Stambolian’s silk dress in June 1994. Famously auctioned off by Princess Diana herself in 1997—with proceeds going towards cancer and AIDS charities—the dress is going under the hammer again this December.
New York’s iconic Sotheby’s will auction the dress on behalf of the original auction winners, with part of the proceeds going towards NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Experts predict the dress will sell for somewhere between $150,000 and $300,000—a massive jump from the 1997 winning auction price, which was just over $50,000
Princess Diana's memorable style icons include this sheep-print sweater
Princess Diana arrives at The Serpentine wearing "the revenge dress."
"My late husband and I knew that this dress was something special," the consignor, who bought the dress during its original 1997 sale, said. "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."
Princess Diana’s infamous fashion statement demonstrated a deep knowledge on her global impact. “Fashion can be a language when words fail or are simply not enough. Princess Diana understood that instinctively,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s Global Head of Handbags and Fashion, said, according to Town and Country. “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.”
Princess Diana viewing her dresses from the 1997 auction.
Princess Diana in the revenge dress.
“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 said. “What became a global viral moment—long before social media made the term mundane–also gave license to anyone, but especially women, to use fashion beyond adornment and much more intentionally and meaningfully.”
The consignors expertly surmised the impact of Princess Diana’s revenge dress, saying: "Thirty years on, you can say the words anywhere in the world and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean."
