On Friday, a hugely exciting auction took place in Beverly Hills. Many personal items that belonged to the late Diana, Princess of Wales were sold and some of them were exchanged for extraordinary sums of money.
The sale featured 200 items from members of the royal family, but it predominantly featured the most items from Diana’s extensive collection.
The mother of Prince William and Harry is known as the world’s most famous fashion icon, so it comes as no surprise that most of her dresses were the most popular and reached the highest bids. The auction was called: ‘Princess Diana’s Elegance & A Royal Collection’ and featured some of her utmost favourite fashion houses; Victor Edelstein, Caroline Charles, and Catherine Walker.
Speaking of Catherine Walker, a pink floral silk shirt dress that Diana wore to Prince William’s sports day at Richmond Stadium in 1988 as well as leaving Prince Harry’s school in Notting Hill in 1992, sold for £352,000. Wowza!
A magenta silk and lace off-the-shoulder evening dress designed by Victor Edelstein, which Diana wore in London and Germany in 1987, topped the sale at £720,000, a whopping four-and-a-half times its original lower estimate.
You may be aware of Edelstein’s work – he also designed the famous navy blue dress Diana wore when she danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985. An iconic moment and an iconic dress.
Visually, the star of the show was a gown by Murray Arbeid. His midnight blue strapless dress was one of Diana’s favourites that she wore twice. Once in 1986 to watch the Phantom Of The Opera premiere, and again to a Royal Opera House performance of Cinderella in 1987. The design had a drop waist, a huge taffeta skirt and the bodice was covered in star-spangled sequin stars. Stunning.
This gown was sold for an eye-watering £617,000.