Diana’s black dress fetches £192,000

Jun 10, 2010 - Age Corespondent |

London

A dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales in March 1981, just a few weeks after her engagement with Prince Charles, has been sold at an auction for £192,000.
The black taffeta dress, created by designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel, was estimated to sell for £30,000-£50,000. However, it sold for £192,000. The dress was bought by a fashion museum in Chile.
Nineteen-year-old Lady Diana Spencer wore the dress to a black-tie benefit event at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City, her first official engagement with her fiancé, the Prince of Wales.
The dress was part of the Emanuel Royal Archive and comprised of about 30 lots of clothes worn by Princess Diana, fashion sketches, invoices, letters and related ephemera.
“This fascinating archive charts the young Lady Diana’s emergence onto the world stage — from shy nursery school teacher to glamorous leader of fashion. These very early garments dating from 1981 show the young woman’s love of romantic fairy-tale gowns, resplendent with acres of taffeta, bows and flounces. The gowns Princess Diana chose to wear at this point in her life reflected the New Romantic movement which was so prevalent in music and fashion at the time,” fashion auctioneers Kerry Taylor Auctions said.
“The transformation was incredible! She had arrived looking like the nursery school teacher she was, but now she looked like a movie star,” David & Elizabeth Emanuel wrote in their book, Dress for Diana. The couple also designed Diana’s wedding gown.
The Emanuels had the gown with them as Diana returned the gown for refitting as she lost weight before her wedding. However, they made a new, identical gown that would fit her new proportions.

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