The most famous little black dress in royal history is heading back under the hammer.
This December, Princess Diana’s so-called “Revenge Dress” will be offered up at auction for the first time in nearly three decades. The black silk Christina Stambolian design, worn by Diana to a Vanity Fairy party at London’s Serpentine Gallery in June 1994, will headline a standalone fashion evening auction at Sotheby’s in New York on December 9. Its estimate sits between $150,000 and $300,000.
Few dresses have crossed the confines of fashion to become such a definitive pop culture moment as this LBD—or have their own Wikipedia page. The image of Princess Diana—shoulders bare in the low-cut and fitted black dress, a pearl choker at her neck, with scarlet nails and matching lipstick—it became one of the most important photographs of her life. More than 30 years later, it remains a case study in the ability of clothes to communicate what their wearer would rather leave unsaid.
The context, of course, has become almost as famous as the dress itself. Earlier that day, a television interview with Diana’s estranged husband, then-Prince Charles, was due to air, in which he addressed his infidelity during their marriage. Diana had originally planned to wear something else to the Serpentine, but changed course at the last minute. She had owned Stambolian’s off-the-shoulder design for three years, having previously considered it “too daring” for a public appearance. Her former stylist Anna Harvey would later recall that Diana “wanted to look a million dollars.”
It was an extraordinary example of Diana’s increasingly assured understanding of the power of fashion. Rather than disappear from view on an evening when the world’s attention was trained on her private life, she offered up an entirely different, more confident image: one that would evolve into an assured, fashion-forward wardrobe in her last years. The dress subsequently became known as the “Revenge Dress,” giving a name to a style phenomenon that has been repeated by generations of celebrities navigating break-ups and scandal in public.
Diana never wore it publicly again. In June 1997, she included the Stambolian design among 79 dresses she personally put up for auction to benefit cancer and AIDS charities. It was acquired by its current owners and has remained in their possession ever since. This December’s sale will continue that charitable legacy, with part of the proceeds benefiting NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Hospital of Edinburgh.
Photo: Campbell Addy for Sotheby’s
