#Princess #Diana #Gown #Sets #Record #WorthPoint
Image source: Julien’s Auctions
Princess Diana, loved the world over as “The People’s Princess,” had stellar taste in clothes. She was always impeccably dressed wherever she went, and previous charity auctions sold some of her clothing for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The latest sale, by Julien’s Auctions, included two of her most recognizable pieces of clothing. The blouse she wore for her engagement photo—designed and made by Emanuel (the design house that also created her wedding gown)—sold for $318K. However, the real star of the show was an evening gown comprising embroidered stars on a velvet bodice with a ballet-inspired two-tiered organza skirt.
Jacques Azagury, a London-based Moroccan designer who had worked with Diana on several dresses, made the gown for the princess. After meeting her in 1985, he went on to create several of her most famous evening dresses for the next twelve years.
Estimates for the dress were in the range of $100,000 to $200,000, but after nineteen bids, the gown sold to an unnamed buyer for $1,143,000, making it the most expensive item of clothing ever worn by the Princess of Wales. Diana wore the dress on two separate occasions. The first was at a dinner held by the Mayor of Florence, Italy, when she toured there with her then-husband, Prince Charles, in 1985. The following year, in May, the princess chose the gown for a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performance at the The Orpheum.
This particular dress was also part of the Kensington Palace Fashion Rules exhibition from July 2013 to July 2015. The proceeds from the sale of the dress and the Emanuel engagement photo blouse will benefit the New York Historical Society.
If you would like to see more of Diana’s gowns and memorabilia sold at auction, check out our WorthPoint Price Guide.
Brenda Kelley Kim lives in the Boston area. She is the author of Sink or Swim: Tales From the Deep End of Everywhere and writes a weekly syndicated column for The Marblehead Weekly News/Essex Media Group. When not writing or walking her snorty pug, Penny, she enjoys yard sales, flea markets, and badminton.
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