Diana’s ‘revenge dress’, worn when Charles revealed infidelity, up for auction

Christina Stambolian dress from 1994 has defined a whole category of fashion and is expected to fetch up to €256,000

Diana's 'revenge dress' which is due to be sold by Sotheby's later this year. Photo: Campbell Addy/Sotheby's/PA

The dress that Diana, Britain's princess of Wales wore one September evening in 1994 would have been memorable for its design alone — black, fitted, off-the-shoulder, skintight and short. 

However, it has another distinction, of defining a whole category of fashion — what has since become known as “revenge dressing”.

Worn by Diana the same night Charles would reveal his infidelity on TV, the dress was quickly labelled “the revenge dress” by the media. It has its own Wikipedia page, with the same title.

Now, for the first time since 1997, it is up for auction. In December, Sotheby’s will sell the garment, designed by Christina Stambolian, with an estimate of £110,000 (€128,000) to £220,000 (€256,000). 

This month it will go on display at the auction house in London, before travelling to Hong Kong, Geneva and New York, where it will be sold.

Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, Morgane Halimi, says the dress is in very select company, in that its legacy goes beyond design.

Diana arrives at the Serpentine in the Christina Stambolian dress in 1994. Photo: Martin Keene/PA

“It occupies a unique place in fashion history because it represents one of those very rare moments when a garment transcends fashion to become part of culture history.” 

This buzz around the design has been there since the 1990s. When Diana sold the dress herself as part of a charity auction in 1997, it raised £39,098 (€45,537), close to £100,000 (€116,470) in today’s money. The family who bought it has owned it since then.

“She created a look that no one had ever seen her present before,” says Halimi. “That allowed her to show her resolve to stand up for herself and reclaim the narrative of a story that would have been heartbreaking for anyone in her situation.”

The dress contrasted with how the public was used to seeing her. She chose it over the more traditional gown by Valentino she had planned to wear. Stambolian later compared it to the black swan Odile in Swan Lake.

“She chose not to play the scene like Odette, innocent in white,” the designer told Harper’s Bazaar in 2022. 

“She was clearly angry. She played it like Odile in black. She wore bright red nail enamel, which we had never seen her do before. She was saying: ‘Let’s be wicked tonight.’”

The Guardian