{"id":173838,"date":"2025-06-10T20:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/173838\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T20:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:31:09","slug":"princess-diana-gowns-star-in-largest-auction-of-late-royals-fashion-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/173838\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Diana gowns star in \u2018largest\u2019 auction of late royal\u2019s fashion | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(CNN) \u2014<\/strong> Princess Diana\u2019s ski suit, a Dior handbag given to her by France\u2019s first lady and the floral dress she wore to visit children in hospital are among dozens of items from the late royal\u2019s wardrobe headed to auction this month.<\/p>\n

Featuring over 100 pieces belonging to the former Princess of Wales \u2014 including hats, handbags and shoes, as well as sketches and handwritten letters \u2014 the sale has been described by Julien\u2019s Auctions the \u201clargest collection\u201d of the royal\u2019s fashion ever to go under the hammer.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cPrincess Diana\u2019s Style & A Royal Collection,\u201d the auction is accepting online bids ahead of a live sale at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills, California later this month.<\/p>\n

The highest estimates belong to two dresses: A floral number Diana sported on several occasions between 1988 and 1992, including during an official visit to Spain, and a cream silk Catherine Walker evening gown the Princess of Wales wore during her 1986 tour of the Gulf. Both are expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000, according to the auction house.<\/p>\n

The former dress was designed by the high-end British salon Bellville Sassoon, whose owner David Sassoon later revealed<\/a> the princess referred to it as her \u201ccaring dress,\u201d because its bright colors put sick children at ease during hospital visits.<\/p>\n

Other big-ticket dresses include a yellow floral Bruce Oldfield two-piece, a blue sleeveless shift dress by her close friend Gianni Versace and a black taffeta evening gown that she wore to an event in London in 1981 \u2014 her first official appearance since the announcement of her engagement to then-Prince Charles.<\/p>\n

The latter gown\u2019s designer Elizabeth Emanuel, who went on to co-create Diana\u2019s wedding gown, said in an press release that she offered up archival items and sketches so they could be \u201cloved and appreciated once again by those who will never forget those golden days when Diana was our Queen of Hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other notable lots include a lambskin Dior handbag given to Diana by former French first lady, Bernadette Chirac, and the peach-colored straw archer hat she wore for her honeymoon send-off in 1981.<\/p>\n

While many of items were worn on formal occasions, others demonstrate Diana\u2019s quintessential take on casual \u201880s and \u201890s style, including a scarlet nylon ski suit and an oversized sweatshirt bearing the logo of the British Lung Foundation (with top estimates of $50,000 and $20,000, respectively).<\/p>\n

Diana\u2019s fashion has frequently commanded large sums at auction \u2014 even during her lifetime. In 1997, she put almost 80 dresses<\/a> up for sale via Christie\u2019s, raising over $3.2 million for cancer and AIDS research. The current auction record for a one of her outfits was set at Julien\u2019s Auctions in 2023, when the black-and-blue Jacques Azagury gown she wore to at least two public engagements in the mid-1980s sold for $1.14 million<\/a><\/p>\n

As well as private viewings in New York, London and Los Angeles, a selection of Diana\u2019s wardrobe items from this month\u2019s sale are currently being exhibited at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Ireland.<\/p>\n

The auction also includes items belonging to members of the British Royal Family, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother, with some of the pieces dating from the 19th century. A portion of the auction\u2019s proceeds will go to the British charity Muscular Dystrophy UK, the auction house said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrincess Diana\u2019s legacy lives on not only through her humanitarian work but also in the timeless elegance of her style, which continues to inspire the world,\u201d said Julien\u2019s Auctions\u2019 co-founder and executive director, Martin Nolan, in a press release.<\/p>\n

The-CNN-Wire<\/p>\n

\u2122 & \u00a9 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CNN) \u2014 Princess Diana\u2019s ski suit, a Dior handbag given to her by France\u2019s first lady and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[77,12,5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-173838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-royal","11":"tag-royal-families","12":"tag-royal-family","13":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114660972107563932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}