Sotheby’s will auction off Princess Diana’s now-iconic revenge dress.
Vogue reported on Thursday, September 10, that the black Christina Stambolian frock Diana wore to a June 1994 event at London’s Serpentine Gallery will sell in a standalone auction on December 9. Per the outlet, the dress’ estimate ranges from $150,000 to $300,000, with the proceeds benefiting the NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Hospital of Edinburgh.
Diana previously included the ensemble in a June 1997 auction to benefit cancer and AIDS charities, where it was acquired by its current owners. (Diana died just two months after the auction in a fatal car accident in Paris. She was 36.)
Diana famously wore the off-the-shoulder Stambolian number — which has since been dubbed the ultimate revenge dress — only once. The late People’s Princess stepped out in the outfit on the same day that her ex-husband, now-King Charles III, confirmed in a TV interview that he had an extramarital affair with now-wife Queen Camilla. (Charles, 77, and Diana shared sons Prince William and Prince Harry, who were 15 and 12, respectively, when their mother died.)
“The story behind her wearing the ‘Revenge Dress’ is quite interesting,” royal expert Claudia Joseph exclusively told Us in 2023. “She’d gone into Christina Stambolian dress shop with her brother Charlie Spencer, and he sat there while she tried on clothes.”
According to Joseph, Diana initially ordered the dress in a white color, but the designer thought “it would look better in black.”
“She was [groaning] about it, but Christina insisted, ‘This looks fabulous on you,’” Joseph told Us, claiming Diana planned to wear a different Valentino gown to the Serpentine event, but the press leaked details about the ensemble in advance. “She got quite angry about that, so she went into her closet and her butler suggested she wear the [Stambolian], and it of course got dubbed the ‘Revenge Dress.’”
Diana and Charles were married from 1981 until their divorce in 1996, which saw the late princess switching up her royal wardrobe.
“That’s why we’d see her in working suits from Chanel. She took risks and wore slightly shorter skirts,” Joseph explained. “When she was with Charles, she didn’t wear heels because she didn’t want to stand towering above him. But once they divorced, she could wear what she wanted.”
