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Fashion

12th Sep 2023

Three of Princess Diana’s dresses sell for €1.5 million at auction

Jody Coffey

Her impeccable fashion sense lives on.

Three of Princess Diana’s evening gowns have sold at an auction in the US for a jaw-dropping $1.6 million (€1.49 million).

The dresses were originally bought by businesswoman, Ellen Petho, for $150,000 (€139,998.75) at a Christie’s auction in New York two months before Diana’s death in 1997.

Petho’s dresses raised more than $1 million for a scholarship fund for mature art and design students by being put on display at the auction in Beverley Hills, California, titled ‘Legends: Hollywood and Royalty’.

The garments worn by the former Princess of Wales were three of 1,400 items that were up for sale at Julien’s Auction, which celebrated 100 years of Warner Bros.

The fashion items in question were worn by the late Princess Diana at two star-studded occasions and one private event, according to MailOnline.

These included a scarlet-red silk Bruce Oldfield gown and two designs by Catherine Walker: a black silk velvet and white silk crepe strapless gown and an off-the-shoulder black faille bodice with a draped jade silk skirt.

The red Bruce Oldfield gown was worn by the late princess during the premiere of the film ‘Hot Shots!’ at the Odeon Leicester Square in November 1991. This dress was sold for $571,500 (€533,889.04), according to the outlet. 

Diana’s black and jade dress worn to a gala at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Canada, in 1991, designed by Catherine Walker, was bought at the auction for $508,000 (€474,388.18), more than eight times its lower estimate of $60,000 (€56,030.40).

While the black and white Catherine Walker dress worn by Princess Diana at a private event had a minimum estimate of $100,000 (€93,384), it went for $571,500 (€533,609.55).

The three designer dresses worn by the late Princess of Wales had not been seen in public for more than three decades, according to MailOnline.

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