Expected to fetch up to $300,000 at New York sale in December; Sotheby's: 'Fashion can become a language'

Princess Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in London on June 29, 1994, wearing the black fitted dress that would become known as the "revenge dress." [Getty Images]
Princess Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in London on June 29, 1994, wearing the black fitted dress that would become known as the "revenge dress." [Getty Images]

The late Princess Diana's "revenge dress" — a garment that broke royal convention and sparked a pop-culture phenomenon — is heading to auction for the first time in nearly 30 years.

The evening dress, designed by Greek designer Christina Stambolian, will go on public view in London this month before traveling to Hong Kong and Geneva, Switzerland, ahead of a Dec. 9 sale in New York, where it is expected to fetch up to $300,000 (about 400 million won).

Diana wore the form-fitting black dress on June 29, 1994 — the very night her then-husband, now King Charles III, appeared in an ITN documentary and admitted to an extramarital affair. Details of the affair had already leaked to the British press days earlier, and the documentary drew an audience of about 13 million viewers.

Despite the circumstances, Diana arrived at a party at the Serpentine Gallery in London wearing the dress, which subsequently earned the nickname "revenge dress."

She paired the off-the-shoulder silk gown with black high heels, a clutch bag and bold red nail polish, and wore around her neck a choker fashioned from an antique diamond-and-sapphire brooch — a wedding gift from the Queen Mother. The ensemble is widely credited with allowing Diana to reclaim her public image on her own terms.

Morgan Halimi, Sotheby's head of handbags and fashion, said: "Fashion can become a language when words fail or fall short. Princess Diana understood this instinctively."

Princess Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in London on June 29, 1994, wearing the black fitted dress. [Getty Images]
Princess Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in London on June 29, 1994, wearing the black fitted dress. [Getty Images]

"At one of the most scrutinized and emotionally charged moments of her life, Princess Diana turned this dress into one of the most powerful messages — in her own way," Halimi added.

At the time, black was considered appropriate within royal circles only for funerals. According to Sotheby's, Stambolian's design was a variation on the "little black dress" Coco Chanel first introduced in 1926 — a piece that recast black from a color of mourning into one of sophistication and elegance, and came to symbolize the liberation of women from the fashion constraints of an earlier era.

In a 2013 Channel 4 documentary, "Princess Diana's Dresses: The Auction," Stambolian revealed that Diana had kept the black dress in her wardrobe for three years, considering it "too daring," before impulsively deciding to wear it that evening.

Halimi said the moment "went viral long before social media made that word commonplace," adding that it showed people — particularly women — that fashion could be used far more deliberately and meaningfully than mere decoration: "as a shield, a weapon, or both."

Princess Diana's "Black Sheep" sweater is presented at a Sotheby's auction in London in July 2023. [Getty Images]
Princess Diana's "Black Sheep" sweater is presented at a Sotheby's auction in London in July 2023. [Getty Images]

The dress could ultimately sell for more than the estimate. A comparatively lesser-known Diana gown sold at auction in 2023 for $604,800, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate. That same year, Diana's "Black Sheep" sweater set a record when it sold for more than $1.1 million.

According to Sotheby's, the revenge dress last changed hands in June 1997, when Diana put 79 of her dresses up for auction to raise funds for breast cancer and AIDS charities. The dress subsequently appeared at several charitable events in Scotland before going on display at the Paisley Museum in Scotland — its last known public exhibition — roughly 30 years ago, after which it disappeared from public view.

The anonymous collector who purchased the dress in 1997 said she and her late husband always knew it was something special. "Princess Diana was walking into one of the worst nights of her life, but you would never have known it from looking at her," she recalled. "In those few seconds in front of the cameras, the cocktail dress became a manifesto."

"Even now, 30 years on, you can say those words anywhere in the world and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean," she added. "I hope it goes to someone who will treasure it as much as we have."

Sotheby's said a portion of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to NHS Lothian Charity, a medical charity.


mokiya@heraldcorp.com