A dress worn by Princess Diana is being put up for auction. This is called her 'revenge dress'.
The late Princess of Wales wore this strapless black silk evening dress to a party in London. Hours earlier, her estranged husband Prince Charles had admitted that he had an extramarital affair during their marriage.
Her style of reaching the Serpentine Gallery wearing this dress in the year 1994 became a memorable moment of pop culture.
Auction house Sotheby's hopes that this dress can be sold for around Rs 2.85 crore in the auction to be held on December 9.
It is being put up for auction for the first time since 1997. At that time, a few months before her death, Diana had auctioned 79 of her dresses to raise money for charity.
Morgan Halimi, global head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby's, said in a statement that Princess Diana naturally understood that fashion could have its own language.
He said, "Princess Diana, in her own way, made this dress one of her most powerful messages. This was a period of her life that was under intense scrutiny and intense emotional turmoil."
"She came to the public at a time when her story was being told by other people. But she told her story in her own way through the clothes she decided to wear."
The same evening as the Serpentine Gallery fundraising dinner, a documentary was broadcast on TV in which the then Prince of Wales (now King) admitted, after years of rumors and media reports, that he had been unfaithful to Diana.
Information about this ITV interview was leaked a few days ago. Therefore, Diana's first public appearance after the documentary was shown was largely considered her answer.
Anna Harvey, who was Diana's stylist at the time, was quoted as saying that the Princess "wanted to look very fabulous."
Just before going to the event, she decided to change her dress. She gave up the idea of wearing a less attractive Valentino gown and wore this off-the-shoulder dress.
The lower part of this dress, made by Greek designer Christina Stambolian, was short on one side and long on the other. There was also a long part of chiffon fabric behind it. Diana wore a royal necklace, black clutch bag and black heels with it.
Before its sale, 'Revenge Dress' will be shown in many cities of the world. It will be at Sotheby's showroom in London from 18 to 24 September. After this, it will be taken to Hong Kong in the beginning of October and Geneva in the beginning of November. Ultimately it will be taken to New York, where it will be auctioned.
Earlier, this dress was auctioned by Diana herself. It was among dozens of items sold to raise money for cancer and AIDS charities.
This dress was bought by Breeze McKenzie and her husband Graeme, who lived in Glasgow at that time. He had paid about Rs 50.6 lakh for this.
McKenzie told The Independent at the time that she had not bought the dress to wear. She said, "I can't fit in." He bought it because the money received from it was to be given to a charity named Children First.
"My late husband and I knew this dress was very special," McKenzie said in a statement released by Sotheby's on Thursday.
"Princess Diana was about to face the toughest night of her life. But there was no way she could tell. In the time it took to photograph her, it went from being a cocktail dress to a statement."
"Even after 30 years, if you say 'revenge dress' anywhere in the world, everyone knows which dress you are talking about."
She told that after her husband's death, she decided to sell this dress. Bidding for this dress with my husband was one of the greatest days of their lives together.
Sotheby's said that a rare copy of the 1997 auction catalog will also be sold along with this dress. It is signed by Diana and Stambolian. It is told in the catalog that the idea of auctioning the dress was given by Prince William.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital through NHS Lothian Charity.
However, it is expected that this dress will be sold at a very high price. But this will not be the first time that something worn by Princess Diana will be sold for such a huge amount.
A sweater of Diana was sold in the Sotheby's auction in New York in the year 2023 for about Rs 11.9 crore. On this sweater there was a black sheep drawn among many rows of white sheep.
