Diana’s dress, a £240,000 gift for a wife
IT was the dress in which Princess Diana captivated America – and John Travolta.
And this morning the midnight-blue velvet evening gown will be captivating a new owner, whose husband bought it for her as a surprise.
He paid £240,000 for the off-the-shoulder velvet Victor Edelstein dress, which was among ten of the princess’s dresses auctioned yesterday for almost £900,000.
Bidders from Asia, the US, Europe and Australia competed at a London auction house to buy a ‘slice of history’.
Diana wore the dress to a state dinner at the White House in 1985 where she famously danced with Travolta.
Auctioneer Kerry Taylor said: ‘It was bought by a British gentleman who has never bought a dress before but he wanted to buy it as a surprise to cheer up his wife.
‘He only called just in time before the auction, and when I told him he’d been successful, he was delighted.
‘His wife loved Princess Diana, so when he told her she was over the moon.’
Two other dresses were bought by representatives f rom Kensington Palace, which already displays some of Diana’s outfits.
The ten dresses were originally sold by the Princess a month before her death in August 1997. Prince William had suggested she auction them for charity. US businesswoman Maureen Rorech Dunkel bought them as an investment.
After Diana’s death, she exhibited them to raise money for charity – and is selling them after facing financial problems.
The collection fetched almost twice the price she paid 15 years ago.