CELEBRITY
Dress Worn By Princess Diana Sells For $1.1 Million At Auction, Smashing Record
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A dress worn by Princess Diana sold for a record-breaking $1.1 million at auction, 11 times more than estimated and nearly twice the previous record for one of her dresses.
Julien’s Auctions announced on Sunday that the ballerina-length evening dress designed for the Princess of Wales by Moroccan-British fashion designer Jacques Azagury sold for $1.1 million, along with an illustration, 11 times the original estimate of $100,000.
The dress was first worn by Diana in Florence, Italy in April 1985, and again during an appearance at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1986. It features a black velvet bodice with shoulder pads and metallic embroidered stars, over a drop-waist royal blue organza two-tier skirt with a sash and bow.
Princess Diana was a known lover of the ballet, and a patron of the English National Ballet. She went on to wear several dresses designed by Azagury, including a favorite blue silk georgette mini-dress she wore on June 3, 1997, at the Royal Albert Hall for a performance of Swan Lake.
The auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer.
The previous record sale price for a dress worn by Princess Diana was set earlier this year at $604,800 for a purple evening dress by designer Victor Edelstein.
Azagury retired this year, and told People in November that is why he is selling several iconic pieces identical to those worn by Diana. Five evening gowns identical to those he designed for Diana were sold to a private collector in Los Angeles last month for an undisclosed sum. The dresses are twins to those worn by Diana during her final years, including the blue dress she wore to see Swan Lake.
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,” Azagury told the outlet. I really wanted people to keep enjoying these iconic dresses and ideally to keep the whole collection together.
TMX contributed to this article.
