Princess Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ to be up for auction for first time in decades

The “revenge dress” worn by the late Princess Diana in 1994 is up for auction at Sotheby’s for the first time in nearly three decades.

The black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian is estimated to fetch as much as £220,000 (US$298,110) when it goes on sale on December 9 during Sotheby’s Luxury Week in New York, the auction house said on Thursday.

Diana wore the dress in June 1994 as she arrived at the Serpentine Gallery in London for a fundraising dinner.

It gained notoriety because the then Prince Charles – from whom she had been separated for nearly two years but not yet divorced – was widely expected to say in a national television interview broadcast that same evening that he had been unfaithful to her.

According to a later documentary, her decision to wear the dress was a last-minute one after initially setting aside a more traditional Valentino outfit. “She wanted to look a million dollars,” her former stylist Anna Harvey said on the programme, according to Vogue. “And she did.”

Stambolian’s off-the-shoulder dress features an asymmetric hemline and chiffon train.