Princess Diana’s iconic “revenge dress”, worn on the night her then-husband Prince Charles publicly admitted to being unfaithful, is set to go under the hammer for the first time in nearly three decades.
The late Princess of Wales wore the strapless black silk evening dress to a fundraising dinner at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1994, just hours after a documentary aired in which Charles admitted he had been unfaithful during their marriage.
Her dramatic appearance in the dress became one of the most recognisable fashion moments of the 20th century, with the outfit widely interpreted as Diana’s public response to the scandal.
Sotheby’s expects the dress to fetch up to £220,000 (US$300,000) when it is auctioned on Dec 9.
The dress was last sold at auction in 1997, when Diana put 79 of her dresses up for sale to raise money for charity just months before her death.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said Diana understood the power of clothing to communicate a message.
“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.
The same evening Diana attended the Serpentine Gallery event, the ITV documentary featuring Charles’ admission of infidelity was broadcast. The contents of the interview had already been leaked several days earlier, making Diana’s first public appearance afterwards the subject of intense media attention.
Her stylist at the time, Anna Harvey, was reportedly told that Diana “wanted to look a million dollars”.
Diana made a last-minute change to her outfit before leaving for the event, abandoning a less dramatic Valentino gown for the black Christina Stambolian dress. The off-the-shoulder design featured an asymmetric hemline and chiffon train, which she paired with a royal necklace, black clutch and black heels.
The dress will be displayed internationally ahead of the auction, beginning at Sotheby’s London showroom from Sept 18 to 24. It will then travel to Hong Kong in early October, Geneva in early November and finally New York for the auction.
Diana originally auctioned the dress herself in 1997 as part of a sale intended to raise funds for cancer and Aids charities.
It was bought by Briege Mackenzie and her late husband, Graeme, who were then living in Glasgow, for £39,098.
Mackenzie said she and her husband knew the dress was significant when they bought it, although she never intended to wear it herself.
“Princess Diana was walking into the worst night of her life and you would never know it to look at her,” she said in a statement issued by Sotheby’s.
“It went from a cocktail dress to a statement in the time it took to photograph her.”
Mackenzie decided to sell the dress following her husband’s death. She described bidding for it together as “one of the great days of our life together”.
Sotheby’s said a rare copy of the 1997 auction catalogue, signed by Diana and designer Christina Stambolian, will also be sold alongside the dress. The catalogue credits Prince William with the idea of auctioning Diana’s dresses.
Part of the proceeds from the latest sale will be donated to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital through the NHS Lothian Charity.
The dress is expected to command considerably more than another item associated with the same night — Diana’s vintage Jaguar XJ40, which she arrived in at the Serpentine Gallery event and which sold for £66,250 at auction earlier this year.
Diana’s wardrobe has previously attracted huge sums at auction. In 2023, a sweater featuring a black sheep among rows of white ones sold for £920,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
