Princess Diana’s famous “revenge dress” will be auctioned in New York in December and is expected to fetch up to $300,000 (almost R5 million).
Diana wore the black, off-the-shoulder gown to a gala dinner in London in 1994, on the same day then-Prince Charles publicly admitted during a television interview that he had been unfaithful to her.
The dress designed by Christina Stambolian is estimated to sell for between $150,000 and $300,000. Part of the proceeds will go to charity.
“Princess Diana turned the dress into one of the most powerful messages she ever made, during one of the most scrutinized and emotionally charged episodes of her life,” said Morgane Halimi of Sotheby’s, which announced the auction on Thursday.
Halimi said the dress “gave license to anyone, but especially women, to use fashion beyond adornment and much more intentionally and meaningfully: as a shield, a weapon or both”.
The dress was previously auctioned in 1997 to raise money for cancer and AIDS charities, shortly before Diana died in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36.
