(DailyDig.com) – Diana, Princess of Wales’s 1985 dress, fetched eleven times its expected price at auction.
Diana wore the dress twice: first to a banquet in 1985 in Florence, Italy, with Charles, Prince of Wales, her husband at the time. The second time she wore the dress was in 1986, when she attended the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The renowned textile trader Jakob Schlaepfer selected the fabric for the collector’s item, while Jacques Azagury’s design team painstakingly strung metallic embroidery stars onto the dress.
The blue and black velvet evening dress, in ballerina-length, fetched a grand total of $1,148,080 at Hollywood’s Julien’s Auctions. At auction, it shattered the previous record for the most costly dress ever worn by Diana.
The garment and its coordinating artwork was estimated to be worth $100,000. It has padding at the shoulders, a sash, and a big bow, and the skirt is made of blue organza.
Many saw Diana’s ballerina skirt as a tribute to her passion for ballet dancing and her support of the English National Ballet.
Prior to this latest sale, Diana’s velvet gown from 1991 by Victor Edelstein had fetched $604,800 at a January auction. The difference between the first-place sale and the second-place sale has almost been quadrupled by the Jacques Azagury dress of Diana’s. She donned a number of items from the Moroccan-British designer’s collection when she was a member of the royal family.
At the same auction as the Azagury dress, Diana’s blush pink blouse of chiffon by the Emanuels from her 1981 engagement photo fetched $381,000, over four times the $80,000 estimate. Photographer Lord Snowdon got a shot of the pink chiffon blouse, which has a ruffled collar and front pleats, for the royal family.
Azagury designed a plethora of outfits that Princess Diana wore. An unnamed Los Angeles private collector recently purchased five stunning evening dresses that were exact replicas of Diana’s ensembles made by Azagury.
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