Much excitement has been caused by the news that a dress previously belonging to Princess Diana is coming up for auction at Sotheby’s. Diana fans will remember this outfit from the Serpentine summer party in 1994. It was chosen carefully by the princess with the knowledge that her then husband was appearing in a BBC documentary, airing that same evening, in which he would admit to adultery. Hence the moniker for this item of clothing: ‘The Revenge Dress’.
The dress, made by Christina Stambolian, allowed Diana to show off a devil-may-care confidence, accentuated by her gym-honed legs in sheer black tights, heels and necklace with a fabulously large oval sapphire. The side train adds a final flourish to finish the look. But there is nothing particularly special about the dress in itself.
It is being offered by Sotheby’s in its New York saleroom (formerly known as the Breuer Building, Met Breuer or Whitney depending on your relationship with the city) on 9 December. It is not the first time the dress has appeared at auction. That was in 1997 when Diana auctioned off her dresses at Christie’s for cancer and AIDS charities. That auction was called ‘Dresses’ and it was the first time that Diana was photographed by Mario Testino. The dress was bought by Graeme and Briege Mackenzie, who ran the Body Shop franchise in Glasgow – another icon of the 1990s. They paid $74,000. Now it carries an estimate of $150,000–300,000.
Rakewell is a little confused. The dress is being sold as part of ‘Luxury Week’, but at the moment this seems to be the only lot in the auction. The sale starts at 10am EST, so no doubt other things will happen later in the day. This dress might even be being used to create a media splash in order to secure even more valuable items for the rest of the week. While your correspondent wouldn’t judge people for making a pretty penny, an object that was sold nearly 30 years ago for charity being swallowed into the category of luxury shows precisely how times have changed. But maybe that’s just fashion.
