The iconic black strapless evening gown will return to auction after 30 years.
On June 29, 1994, Diana, Princess of Wales, made an appearance at a fundraising dinner hosted by Vanity Fair at the Serpentine, one of London’s most famous art galleries. The fundraiser was a major cultural success, but it was what Princess Diana wore that evening that became iconic — a frock that was soon dubbed her “revenge dress.”
She looked stunningly sexy in the off-the-shoulder black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian. The look was completed with royal jewels, a black clutch and black pumps.
After three decades, the dress is set to return to auction in December during Sotheby’s Luxury Week in New York, with a portion of the proceeds from the sale to go to NHS Lothian Charity, representing the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Valued between $150,000 and $300,000 (£110,000–£220,000), the dress will be auctioned for the first time since June 1997, when the princess auctioned 79 of her dresses to raise funds for cancer and AIDS charities.
The dress will begin a global tour with its début at Sotheby’s London Fashion Week from September 18 to 24. It will subsequently head to Geneva and Hong Kong before proceeding to New York for the auction. It will remain on public display there at Sotheby’s Breuer Building from December 2 until the live auction on December 9.
The dress, which had sat in Princess Diana’s closet for three years before she wore it because she considered it too daring to wear in public, became a historic fashion statement. The Stambolian design is a variation of the LBD (little black dress), itself a groundbreaking fashion statement when it was popularized by Coco Chanel in 1926.
According to her stylist at the time, Anna Harvey, who helped her prepare for the event, Diana simply “wanted to look a million dollars.”
Over the years since the late princess wore it, the dress has become imbued with different meanings. One common interpretation is that it was an expression of self-confidence and signified that she was choosing herself in the face of adversity. In any case, it was this iconic look that helped make the term “revenge dressing” part of contemporary fashion terminology, as a way to convey confidence, change and independence.
The dress, which was last exhibited at Paisley Museum in Scotland, will return to the auction market after 30 years, marking a significant moment in fashion and cultural history.
