Few people have captured the public imagination so enduringly like Princess Diana. With the recent premiere of the final season of Netflix's The Crown, which covers her last summer and tragic death in 1997, interest in the Princess' life continues to skyrocket, in particular her iconic fashions. This fascination also translated in the auction market this year, with multiple records for Diana's outfits set throughout 2023. These ranged from beloved looks sported in her pre-Princess days to gowns she wore to royal engagements around the world.
In June 1997, just two months before the fatal car crash in Paris, Princess Diana oversaw the auction of 79 of her gowns at Christie's New York, raising $3.25 million for the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and AIDS Crisis Trust. This year, many of those dresses reappeared at auction, with one setting a new record on December 17, 2023.
In honor of this crowning achievement, we look back on the 7 most expensive Princess Diana-worn ensembles sold at auction:
7. Elizabeth and David Emanuel, pink blouse
In early 1981, a 19-year old Lady Diana Spencer sat for her engagement portrait by Lord Snowdon, the royal photographer and former husband of Princess Margaret. For the photo shoot, she handpicked a blush pink chiffon blouse with a pink satin ribbon designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel, who also crafted her wedding gown. The engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana was announced in the February 1981 issue of British Vogue along with these photographs.
This blouse was previously on display at Kensington Palace in London as part of the exhibition Diana: Her Fashion Story that ran from February 24, 2017 to February 17, 2019. Estimated at $80,000, the blouse sold for $381,000 in December 2023, joining the short list of the priciest Princess Diana items ever sold at auction.
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6. Catherine Walker, black and ivory dress
British fashion designer Catherine Walker was one of Princess Diana's favorite designers, and they began collaborating in the early 1980s. For the following 16 years, Walker designed over a thousand custom looks for the Princess. Many became iconic, from the green polka-dot maternity dress Diana wore when leaving the hospital after Prince William's birth in 1982 to the pearl-encrusted "Elvis" dress she modeled in Hong Kong in 1989. Walker's eye for feminine silhouettes that were both flattering and elegant was instrumental in curating Diana's wardrobe of timeless suits and dresses. This reflected her evolution from her role as a young Princess to her work as a humanitarian and patron of the arts. This black velvet and ivory silk crepe gown, worn by the princess to a private event, was one of the gowns she sold at Christie's in 1997. Estimated at $60,000-80,000, it sold at Julien's Auctions in September 2023 for $508,000.
4. Bruce Oldfield, red dress
One of Diana's most memorable looks is this show-stopping red metallic chiffon gown designed by British couturier Bruce Oldfield. She last wore it on November 18, 1991, to the world film premiere of Hot Shots! in London, accompanied by President Arpad Goncz of Hungary and his wife Szusza. Oldfield captured the grandeur of the 1980s in his statement-making gowns that he designed for Diana, including the pale blue dress Diana wore during the Australia-New Zealand tour in 1982 (redesigned on an episode of The Crown) and the gold lamé dress with padded shoulders she wore in 1985 that earned her the nickname "Dynasty Di."
The silver lame tartan design is a subtle nod to the Princess' connection to Scotland, and the flowing skirt was a characteristic of Oldfield's designs. This gown was also a highlight of the 1997 auction at Christie's, selling for $34,500. At its next auction appearance, the gown sold for nearly 17 times that amount, achieving $571,500 at Julien's in September 2023.
5. Catherine Walker, black and jade dress
Also sold at Julien's in September 2023, and achieving the same price as the previous Oldfield gown ($571,500), is this Catherine Walker-designed black and jade gown with an asymmetric waistline. It was worn by Diana to a gala dinner on October 26, 1991, in Toronto while on tour in Canada with Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The black faille bodice sweeps into a bright green silk-crepe skirt that is slit at the back, exposing an emerald satin lining. This gown was worn at a pivotal time in Diana's life, as the Canadian tour was the last royal tour that the Prince and Princess of Wales took together with their children before they separated the following year.
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3. Victor Edelstein, purple dress
British couturier Victor Edelstein was the brainchild behind the deep blue off-the-shoulder velvet dress that the Princess wore to the White House in 1985, where she famously twirled with John Travolta. Four years later, Edelstein similarly designed this aubergine-hued 'Infanta' dress in velvet for his autumn collection in 1989. Though perhaps not as well-known as the "Travolta" dress, this gown was worn in multiple high-profile images of Diana, who donned this purple gown for her official 1991 royal portrait photographed by Lord Snowdon, as well as for Vanity Fair portraits in 1997 taken by fashion photographer Mario Testino. She was also portrayed wearing this gown in a portrait by Douglas Hardinge Anderson, which now hangs at the Royal Marsden Hospital, where Diana served as President. First sold at Christie's in 1997 as part of Diana's collection, it resold at Sotheby's in January 2023 for $604,800.
Related: Princess Di’s Legendary Dress Sells to the British Royal Family
2. Warm & Wonderful, Black Sheep sweater
In June 1981, a month before her royal wedding at St. Paul's Cathedral, Lady Diana Spencer attended Prince Charles' polo match wearing a red wool sweater with rows of white sheep and one single black sheep towards the center. The sweater was designed by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne for their knitwear label Warm & Wonderful as one of their first styles in 1979. A few months later, Buckingham Palace sent a letter to Muir and Osborne on behalf of Princess Diana asking for a new sweater as she had torn the original. The Palace mailed the original, and Muir and Osborne sent back a new sweater to the palace. In March 2023, Muir and Osborne found the original Diana-worn sweater from 1981 in their attic. Estimated between $50,000-80,000, the sweater sold for $1.143 million in October 2023, which set not only a record for a Princess Diana-worn item, but also for any sweater sold at auction.
Related: Princess Diana's Sheep Sweater Sold For $1.1 Million
1. Jacques Azagury, blue dress
Crowning the closet is this night sky-inspired gown that Princess Diana first wore in Florence during a royal tour of Italy in April 1985. The ballerina-length dress was designed by the Moroccan-British designer Jacques Azagury and features a black velvet bodice with embroidered stars in metallic thread and a two-tier royal blue organza skirt with a sash and bow. Originally estimated at $100,000, the dress sold for eleven times that price, fetching $1.148 million at Julien's Auctions on December 17, 2023.
The mystical "starry night" dress was one of Diana's favorites. She wore it again in Canada in 1986 and to a ballet at the Barbican Centre in London in 1988, before finally selling it at auction in 1997. She was a frequent client of Jacques Azagury and was photographed in many of his designs at events during her final summer of 1997, most notably the light blue mini sheath she wore to the Swan Lake ballet that June.
