Princess Diana's famous fashion sense has already been well on display in shows like The Crown and films like Spencer. That said, in case you need further proof that she was a style icon for the ages, a recent high-priced auction of one of the royal's signature dresses should do the trick.
On Sunday, December 17, Princess Diana's ballerina-length evening dress by fashion designer Jacques Azagury—which the royal famously wore in Florence, Italy in April 1985 and again to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1986—sold for a record $1,148,080.
Would the People's Princess have been pleased about the sale of one of her signature looks? The designer says yes because "fashion was a big part of her life." He tells People:
I think she would be so happy because fashion was a big part of her life. That might sound flippant, but she loved getting ready for an occasion, she loved stepping out and being seen by all these people; not disappointing anyone, that was very important to her.
The winning bid on the Azagury gown—which features a black velvet bodice embroidered with metallic stars and a royal-blue organza skirt—was eleven times the frock's original estimate of $100,000. The sale also beat out the previous world record for the most expensive dress worn by Princess Di to be auctioned: a purple evening dress by designer Victor Edelstein that sold for $604,800. Check out the most recent sale:
The Moroccan-British designer recounted how he remembers Princess Diana seeing the dress at his second "New Romantics" collection in London all those years ago:
I remember while I was talking to her, her eye kept going to a certain dress.
When she later visited him at his studio, Princess Diana immediately chose the black-and-blue dress, says Azagury, not caring that it was off the runway and wasn't a custom piece.
It wasn’t specially designed for her at all, although, of course, we made it for her proportions, but she didn’t care that someone else might have it, not at all.
Hearing that the creation sold for such a hefty sum at auction nearly four decades later, the designer said he was "really excited and quite emotional." As he put it:
I was really excited and quite emotional actually as this was the first dress I ever made for her. I’m just so happy that it’s still loved so much.
He likened the dress to "an important piece of art" that spoke both of the time period and of its most famous wearer:
It's almost as valuable as an important piece of art really because it represents the time. That one dress speaks to so much of what was happening at the time; it was the '80s, the big shoulders and it was also the start of the story of Diana.
It's not the first time that Princess Diana's gowns raked in big bucks at auction. The blue-velvet gown that the royal famously wore while dancing with Grease star John Travolta reportedly swept up $362,470 back in 2013. Given how important the Princess of Wales' fashions were to her fame, it's not a shock that attention to detail where hair and costuming are concerned has always been a priority in on-screen depictions of the royal.
The Kristen Stewart-led movie Spencer worked hard to get the accuracy of Diana's looks right, from the royal's feathery blonde hairdo to her hulking engagement ring. Much was also made about recent seasons of The Crown, in which Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki portrayed the princess and stepped out in several notable Lady Di fits, including the much-publicized "Revenge Dress" that the royal wore upon her split from Prince Charles.
But seeing as how Princess Diana's styles are still so heavily valued by the adoring public—and auction audiences, it seems—those attentive efforts are well worth it!
