Princess Diana Dress Bought In Charity Shop Sells For A Fortune
Princess Diana dress sells for a fortune
A beautiful ivory silk dress bought in a charity shop in Hereford for £200 in 1996 has sold at auction this week for over £160,000, after it was discovered to have originally been worn by the late Princess Diana.
Images courtesy of Kerry Taylor Auctions
The ivory dress was originally bought by a woman who worked in a charity shop and it had spent the past 24 years in a box at the bottom of her wardrobe. She bought it to wear to a hunt ball but never did wear it in the end.
The vintage fashion specialist London auction house Kerry Taylor Auctions sold it for her on December 10th 2018 for £161,200 ($202,130) including buyer’s premium.
Princess Diana originally commissioned her wedding dress designer Elizabeth Emmanuel to create this dress for a royal tour Diana was going on in the Gulf States in 1986.
The dress is an ivory silk moss crêpe evening gown embroidered with crystals, sequins and glass beads and Diana wore it on November 16th 1986, whilst attending a banquet hosted by the Emir of Bahrain.
The owner knew the dress had belonged to Princess Diana, but was unaware of its historic significance and value.
It wasn’t until she saw a recent documentary featuring footage of the Royal tour that she realised it was Diana’s famous ballgown that she had bought.
According to auctioneer Kerry Taylor, the dress sparked a bidding war between a private collector and a British museum, but was won by an overseas museum in the end.
