Princess Diana’s allure as a fashion icon is still as strong as ever. She constantly made waves with her sometimes unconventional fashion choices as a royal family member and showed up in eye-catching pieces. One of these iconic outfits got sold at 11 times its original price for a record-breaking $1,148,080 at an auction this weekend. This has set a new record for the highest amount a piece of clothing worn by Princess Diana has ever been sold.
This announcement was made by Julien’s Auctions on Sunday and the dress was sold alongside a designer sketch of the same dress for about $5,080. The velvet long-sleeved embellished ballerina-length royal blue and black gown by Moroccan-British designer Jacques Azagury, originally valued at $100,00), was worn by Princess Diana in Florence, Italy in April 1985 while on tour with then Prince Charles. She also wore it in May 1986 to a performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at Vancouver’s Orpheum Theater. This sale broke the record for Princess Diana’s purple dress by designer Victoria Edelstein which was sold earlier this year for $604,800.
Additionally, a pink chiffon blouse by Emanuels worn by Princess Diana in her 1981 engagement portrait was also sold at the auction at a whopping $381,000, nearly four times its original cost of $80,000.
Before this auction, five of these dresses were recently sold to a private collector for an undisclosed amount. Designer, Azagury, recently told People why he has been selling the pieces Princess Diana wore from his collections. He said, “The whole collection means a lot to me, and the only reason I am selling them is because, as of five weeks ago, I retired. I really wanted people to keep enjoying these iconic dresses and ideally to keep the whole collection together.”
Princess Diana- The people’s Princess
It was the anniversary of the beloved Princess Diana’s death some months ago and she is remembered yearly for her kind-hearted gestures. One of which was how she embraced the sick, especially when their illnesses were frowned upon. One of her most viral images was her shaking the hands of an HIV patient in the hospital without gloves. It is not surprising that we all thought she was a friend of our mothers with their reactions to her death. She was the people’s princess and will always be remembered for that.
Decades after Princess Diana’s death, her style is as influential as ever and the price for her clothing archives keeps growing. The princess has been described as a fashion connoisseur who took her time putting her outfits together for her pleasure and excitement. We get you Diana, we do.
