THE ‘REVENGE DRESS’ NO ONE HAS SEEN FOR YEARS

Diana wore this £900 black silk crepe cocktail dress with a ruched bodice, asymmetric hem and side sash to a Vanity Fair dinner at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1994 (left), on the night that Prince Charles admitted, on national TV, that he was having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. It became known as the ‘revenge dress’. She had bought it in the Christina Stambolian boutique when strolling down Beauchamp Place in Knightsbridge in 1991, and was waiting for the right moment to wear it.

‘Three years went by,’ the designer said afterwards. ‘I was very disappointed. Then I realised she had been waiting for the right occasion. She looked like a beautiful

THREE YEARS WENT BY BEFORE SHE WORE THE DRESS. SHE HAD BEEN WAITING FOR THE RIGHT OCCASION

blackbird in it.’ The dress was one of the 79 that went under the hammer at Christie’s in 1997, bought for $65,000 (£45,900) by Graeme Mackenzie and his wife Briege, who owned the Body Shop franchise in Scotland. They planned to exhibit it to raise money for Scottish charities.

After the Princess’s death, the couple put it in a bank vault. ‘The only noble thing to do was not to use it,’ he said at the time. ‘It would have been inappropriate.’

Since then it has appeared fewer than a dozen times in public and raised more than £40,000 for the charity Children 1st: it has graced luncheons in Aberdeen, balls in Stirling, evening functions in Elgin and fashion shows at Bo’ness and Edinburgh.

‘We were lucky enough to meet the Princess at the auction preview in Christie’s in London and told her our intentions of using the dress to raise money for charity. At the time charities were complaining that the National Lottery was impacting on their donations. I thought the dress would be a way of attracting people to events and that its fame could only help that aim,’ said Graeme. But it has not been seen in public for many years.