She mortgaged her house to buy her dresses...the story of a woman obsessed with collecting Princess Diana's belongings

12 years ago, Australian Renee Blunt and her husband, Livinio Stoeck, decided to allocate their savings to buy a dress worn by Princess Diana, instead of investing in a restaurant they were planning to launch in Los Angeles.

This step marked the beginning of a collecting journey that lasted for years, during which Blunt became one of the most prominent collectors of the late princess’s belongings, with the support of her husband, who shared the collection’s funding with her, and even agreed to remortgage their house more than once to buy new pieces.

Today, Blunt is preparing to display more than 800 pieces of Diana's clothing and personal belongings in her first exhibition entitled "Princess Diana: Love, Life and Legacy - A Life of Giving", which opened on November 7, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in the US state of California.

She says that her desire to collect these collectibles came after she noticed their dispersal among private collections and different destinations around the world, adding that she wanted to preserve as many of them as possible within one group.

In some auctions, chance played a role in Blunt winning items she had been coveting. Last year, she bought the colorful, floral-print “Care” dress that Diana used to wear during her visits to children’s hospitals. Blunt paid $520,000 for the dress.

Mortgage the house for dresses

But expanding the collection did not depend on coincidences alone, but rather required significant financial commitments from the couple. In 2015, they remortgaged their house to finance the purchase of a dress worn by Diana, designed by the Italian house Versace, for $200,000 at auction. They repeated the step in 2025, which allowed Blunt to buy more items, including a peach-colored hat decorated with ostrich feathers, which Diana wore during her honeymoon, which she bought for $26,000.

Her husband caused her to lose her famous sheepskin sweater

The couple spent about $1.9 million at the time. Despite the large sum, Blunt prefers not to focus on the financial value of her holdings, and refuses to provide a total estimate of the collection's value. Her husband, who supports her in financing purchases, does not have her full confidence when it comes to bidding. She still remembers losing the black sheepskin sweater that Diana wore in 1981, after she left her husband the task of presenting the show. The sweater sold for $1.14 million, setting a record.

As for the upcoming exhibition, it will showcase the life of “Lady Diana” through three sections, from her childhood until her death in 1997. To prepare it, Blunt took out her entire collection of storage places, so that the exhibits include personal letters, dresses that the princess wore in her childhood, and recording devices that she used to document her voice notes, as well as records that she preferred to listen to, including works by the musical groups “Abba” and “Queen”, and the singer Elton John, in addition to a large number of... Her dresses.

Most of the pieces on display are owned by Blunt, from the voluminous taffeta spare wedding dress, to the black embroidered evening dress by British designer Jack Azagury, which Diana wore to her 36th birthday party. The only loaned piece is the velvet dress that the princess wore during her famous dance with American actor John Travolta at a dinner party hosted by US President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1985.

The dress, which features an off-the-shoulder cut and a mermaid train skirt, will be on display alongside an ivory dress worn by former US First Lady Nancy Reagan. Plant says this design is the only piece she borrowed to add to the exhibition.

The couple also bears the expenses of storing and preserving the pieces, through a monthly subscription to facilities equipped with temperature control systems, and the storage cost is calculated according to the number of pieces. Plant is also currently working on cataloging her collection in an electronic museum that allows subscribing members to view the collections. Despite the financial burdens associated with this project, she says that the motivation behind it goes beyond the material value of the pieces.

On December 5, exactly 12 years after she bought the first dress Diana wore, another dress of the princess will be put up for public auction, the famous “revenge” dress that she wore after her separation from Prince Charles, which later became one of her most famous looks. Sotheby's in New York estimated its price at about $300,000.

But Blunt does not expect to be able to compete for the dress this time, after she has exhausted her ability to remortgage her house to finance her purchases. She says that she cannot afford it at the present time, expressing her regret at her inability to acquire another piece of the princess's collectibles, especially since her primary goal is to collect and preserve these pieces.

On the other hand, the Ronald Reagan Library exhibition will reveal for the first time to the public another dress from the Blunt collection, which bears some of the design features that distinguished the Stambolian dress, including a heart-shaped chest opening and a black color that was not common in the looks of members of the royal family at the time. According to the accepted royal dress code, the color black was associated with periods of mourning, but after Diana’s separation and departure from the royal family, short black dresses became part of her clothing choices.

Azagury designed this dress, which is believed to be one of the last designs Diana commissioned. The princess underwent six fitting sessions for it, including one that took place a few days before her death in August 1997, but she was unable to wear it after it was completed.

Plant says that the pins are still present at the back of the dress, in a detail that reveals that the design remained incomplete for its owner, even though work on it was completed.