Princess Diana’s celebrated “revenge dress” sent a clear message that she was “taking back the narrative”, according to a fashion expert, as the iconic gown went on public display in London yesterday.
The black silk dress was unveiled in Mayfair ahead of an auction, where it is expected to sell for more than £220,000.
Diana wore the gown in 1994 on the same evening that her then husband, Prince Charles, publicly acknowledged his infidelity during a television interview.
Knowing the disclosure was due to be broadcast, the princess chose the form-fitting, off-the-shoulder silk creation by Greek designer Christina Stambolian for a gala at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said Diana selected the “beautiful and powerful outfit” to reclaim control over her own story.
“She always used fashion as a way of expression, but this time [it] was a way to communicate her personal expression of herself,” Ms Halimi said.
“The way she felt on that day is that, ‘I’m taking back the story and I’m here and I stand for myself’.
“Diana 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.”
Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in the Christina Stambolian-designed gown that would later become known as her “revenge dress”.
Sotheby’s London has opened the first public exhibition of the dress, regarded as one of modern fashion’s most legendary garments, in almost 30 years.
The dress will be on display to the public at Sotheby’s in London until September 24. It will go up for auction in New York in December.
Images of Diana in the dress, accessorized with a sapphire necklace, black pumps and bright red nail polish, shot around the world.
One tabloid proclaimed on its front page the next day: ‘Revenge is chic’.
The following year Diana gave an interview in which she acknowledged her own extramarital affair, and famously said ‘there were three of us in this marriage,’ in reference to Charles’s paramour Camilla Parker-Bowles, now Queen Camilla.
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Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, a year before Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36.
The dress remained so famous that a life-size waxwork replica of Diana wearing it was unveiled at a Paris museum last year.
The dress is being auctioned for the first time since 1997, when Diana sold it and other garments to raise money for Aids charities.
It has a presale estimate of $150,000 to $300,000, but Sotheby’s experts would not be surprised if it far exceeds that price.
A dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, is displayed at Sotheby’s Auction House
A red sweater adorned with sheep that Diana wore to a polo match in 1981 sold in 2023 for $1.1million, many times its presale estimate and a record for an item owned by the late royal.
‘I personally believe that this dress is the most powerful item linked to Diana,’ Halimi said.
‘The Diana provenance always attracts collectors,’ she added. ‘But the story of this dress and the universal message that it brings will definitely attract also institutions as well as private collectors who are looking for unique pieces and one-of-a-kind items.’
In her lifetime, Diana was a style icon and one of the world’s most photographed women.
Her star power has not dimmed, and neither has the fascination with the dramatic disintegration of her marriage to the now King Charles III.
A new book by Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has seized headlines again and reignited a public feud between the Spencers and the Royal Family over the treatment of the princess.
The revenge dress is on show in London until September 24 and travels to Hong Kong and Geneva ahead of its sale in New York on December 9.