It has been 26 years since Princess Diana’s tragic death, and yet the allure behind her legacy seemingly only gets stronger by the day.
Julien’s Auctions, a prestigious auction house based in Los Angeles, announced on Sunday, December 17, that a dress previously worn by the late royal was sold for a record-breaking $1.1 million.
The dress in question was designed by Moroccan-British fashion designer Jacques Azagury. It features shoulder pads, a black velvet bodice with blue embroidered stars and a blue two-tiered organza skirt with a sash and bow.
Julien’s Auctions’ official website offers a lengthy description of the dress, sharing, “The ballerina skirt is the perfect nod to Diana’s love of dance and her patronage of the English National Ballet. The design is sweet and sophisticated, and the silver metallic paint on the velvet sparkles nicely alongside the embroidery to create a design reminiscent of a night’s sky.”
Diana wore the dress publicly on two occasions. The first time was during an official royal tour with her then-husband Prince Charles (now King Charles III) in Florence, Italy, in April 1985. She wore the piece again at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
The winning bid was the most amount of money any of Diana’s dresses have been sold for — and 11 times more than the dress’ original estimate of $100,000.
The previous record was set in January of this year, when a strapless velvet purple dress designed by Victor Edelstein was sold for $604,800.
Many other iconic clothing items previously worn by the royal were also sold at the same auction. A light pink silk chiffon blouse worn by Diana in her official 1981 engagement portrait was also sold for $381,000 — nearly four times the amount of its initial estimate of $80,000.
Other items include a signed design sketch of the velvet evening dress by Azagury, which sold for $5,080, and a red evening gown, worn by Diana in 1991 to the premiere of Hot Shots in London, which sold for $571,500.
So, what is it about Diana that continues to fascinate and inspire the public — enough to drop over $1 million on one of her dresses?
Fashion critic Elizabeth Holmes gave her thoughts in an interview with The New York Times on Monday, December 18. “The fact that this dress, all these years later, goes for this amount — I think people continue to be in awe of her and her fashion. Diana has remained a fashion icon.”
