'One of the most powerful messages she ever made': Princess Diana's 'Revenge Dress' to go up for auction
Princess Diana's iconic 'revenge dress' is set to be auctioned by Sotheby's in December, with estimates ranging from $150,000 to $300,000. The dress, worn in 1994, remains a significant cultural symbol of empowerment and royal history.
Why it matters
The auction highlights the enduring cultural and historical fascination with Princess Diana and the intersection of fashion, celebrity, and royal narrative control.
It's the fashion moment that grabbed headlines and gave the world the term "revenge dressing".On 29 June 1994, Diana, Princess of Wales wore a black, fitted, off-the-shoulder dress to a fundraising dinner hosted by Vanity Fair for the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. As stunning as the head-turning garment was, it had symbolic weight, as Diana wore it the same night then-Prince Charles would reveal his infidelity with Camilla on TV.“Diana wore the dress in June 1994 to the Serpentine Gallery, the same night Prince Charles admitted his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles”, celebrity stylist and royal commentator Leroy Dawkins previously told Euronews Culture. “It was not her first-choice dress to wear that night; she was going to wear Valentino, but it was leaked what she would be wearing, so Diana chose to wear the now notorious revenge dress, which was designed by Christina Stambolian”.
Also covering this story
4 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
Princess Diana's 'revenge dress' goes up for auction
Princess Diana's 'revenge dress' goes up for auction
Diana’s ‘revenge dress’, worn when Charles revealed infidelity, up for auction
Diana's iconic 'revenge dress' up for auction at $300,000
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