Diana's '$1m' famous White House dress highlights Waddington's auction

 

 

Few people are remembered as fondly as Princess Diana is, because of her generous nature and relentless work for charity. As someone who was constantly in the public eye, she still has a huge amount of appeal - especially to collectors.

Diana related memorabilia is part of that rare category, in which it is valuable despite her death only coming relatively recently. As with most Royal related collectibles, its value is only likely to go up.

Some of her most well-known dresses, including one she wore to a State dinner at the White House in Washington, are being sold off by Canadian auction house Waddington's next Thursday, June 23.

The long formal dinner dress, made of blue silk velvet, is valued at $800,000-1,000,000.

 


Princess Di wore this Edelstein dress to a White House dinner in 1985

It was designed by Victor Edelstein, who created his own label in 1977 after working at Christian Dior, and is an extremely elegant dress.

Diana wore it in 1985 to a dinner hosted by then American President, Ronald Reagan, and his wife. The gown, with inspiration from the Edwardian era, was created solely for the event.

While there, she famously danced with film stars, including Clint Eastwood and John Travolta.

Another brilliant piece, designed by her own personal designer Catherine Walker, is an elaborate lilac evening dress, adorned with flowers, sequins and gold glass beads.

 


Sleek and elegant, Diana's evening dress could make $250,000

It is valued at $375,000-425,000, and was created for Diana's tour of India in 1992. The pattern and style of the dress was specifically meant to relate to Indian culture.

Arguably the most stylish dress in the auction is her Clerici ivory satin dress, again designed by Walker. The slim nature of the dress was carried off perfectly by Diana during an official visit to Brazil in 1991.

The single-sleeved dress, complete with sewn gold thread and decorative pink flowers, is valued at $200,000-250,000. Diana, often described as the people's princess and part of the most famous family in the world, is someone whose pieces will always maintain value, as Royal memorabilia does best.

The dresses were part of a collection belonging to Floridian Maureen Rorech Dunkel, who bought them at a Christie's sale in 1997, eight weeks before Lady Diana died.

 

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