{"id":342681,"date":"2026-09-10T09:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T09:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342681\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T09:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T09:54:16","slug":"princess-dianas-revenge-dress-to-be-auctioned-by-sothebys-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342681\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Diana’s ‘Revenge Dress’ To Be Auctioned by Sotheby’s New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLONDON<\/a> \u2013 Princess Diana\u2019s<\/a> black silk strapless \u201crevenge dress,\u201d which she wore to a 1994 fundraising dinner at the Serpentine Gallery<\/a> in London on the same night her estranged husband, Prince Charles, revealed his marital infidelities on national television, is going under the hammer for the first time since her death in 1997.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dress, by the Greek designer Christina Stambolian<\/a>, will hit the auction block on Dec. 9 in New York during Sotheby\u2019s luxury week with an estimate of $150,000\u2013$300,000. Prior to the sale, it will go on tour, starting with London<\/a> on Sept. 18. It will travel to Hong Kong and Geneva before landing in New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe princess first sold the dress herself in June 1997, a few months before she was killed in a car accident in Paris. It was one of 79 dresses that the royal sold at auction to raise funds to benefit cancer and AIDS charities.<\/p>\n

\n\tA rare copy of the original catalogue, numbered and signed by the princess and Stambolian, and crediting the young Prince William with the idea of the sale, will be included in the lot. Part of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dress has been held in a private collection since 1997, and the consignor, who remains anonymous, said it transcends fashion and celebrity.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPrincess Diana<\/a>\u2018s \u201crevenge dress\u201d will go under the hammer for the first time in nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy late husband and I knew that this dress was something special. Princess Diana<\/a> was walking into the worst night of her life, but 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. Thirty years on, you can say the words anywhere in the world, and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBidding at auction and winning it was one of the great days of our life together. With him gone, that chapter has closed, and so should this one. I hope it goes to someone who will enjoy owning it as much as we did,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dress quickly became a popular culture symbol, giving rise to the phrase \u201crevenge dressing\u201d as shorthand for clothing chosen to project confidence, independence and a break with the past.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the dress may have been locked into the public imagination, it has not been seen in public for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the 1997 sale, the dress was used for charity fundraising events around Scotland, including an evening at the House for an Art Lover in Glasgow that Stambolian attended. Its final time on display was at Paisley Museum in Scotland, after which it disappeared from public view for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPrincess Diana\u2019s \u201crevenge dress\u201d will be sold by Sotheby\u2019s New York on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

\n\tMorgane Halimi, Sotheby\u2019s global head of handbags and fashion said, \u201cOn her own terms, Princess Diana turned the dress into one of the most powerful messages she ever made, during one of the most scrutinized and emotionally charged episodes of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe added that \u201cwhat became a global \u2018viral\u2019 moment also gave license to anyone, but especially women, to use fashion beyond adornment and much more intentionally and meaningfully \u2013 as a shield, a weapon or both. Princess Diana walked into a moment in which so much of her story was being told for her and, through what she chose to wear, reclaimed the narrative for herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDiana\u2019s choice of the dress was a last-minute decision. She was originally going to wear a more conservative Valentino design, but decided that, given the world\u2019s eyes would be on her, she needed to make a statement. She had initially considered the dress to be \u201ctoo daring,\u201d which is why it had been hanging in her closet, unworn, for three years.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Anna Harvey, the late Vogue editor and Diana\u2019s stylist at the time who had helped her prepare for the Serpentine event, the princess \u201cwanted to look a million dollars\u201d that night.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe accessorised the dress, which had an asymmetrical hemline and a train, with black heels, red nail polish, a clutch bag and a statement choker created from an antique diamond and sapphire brooch given to her as a wedding gift by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 Princess Diana\u2019s black silk strapless \u201crevenge dress,\u201d which she wore to a 1994 fundraising dinner at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1428,4043,9,11,10,4260,128512],"class_list":["post-342681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-king-charles","tag-london","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-princess-diana","tag-sothebyu2019s-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}