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He doesn’t want revenge.
Prince William was long thought to be responsible for the sale of Princess Diana’s iconic “revenge dress” — a curve-hugging black gown by the designer Christina Stambolian worn by his late mother in 1994. (The “revenge” label comes from its plunging neckline, which was flaunted by Lady Di as tabloids blasted her former husband, Prince Charles, for infidelity.)
Just before his mother’s death in 1997, a teenage Prince William encouraged her to sell the dress, alongside nearly 80 other pieces, for cancer and AIDS charities. It sold for about $74,000 — about $151,000 adjusted for inflation today.
This December, the iconic black frock is back on the block at Sotheby’s, now with true confirmation that Prince William was responsible for its original sale.
According to Sotheby’s notes on the auction, which is scheduled for December 9, “a rare copy of the original catalogue, numbered and signed by the princess and the designer of the dress, crediting Prince William with the idea for the sale, will be sold with the dress.”
And Prince William is still tangentially involved, thanks to a charity component of the auction:
Some proceeds from the upcoming Sotheby’s sale will go to the NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, a mental health facility in Scotland that began taking on free-of-charge patients during the reign of Queen Victoria, Prince William’s 4x great-grandmother.
The charity dovetails with the work of the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales — aka Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton — which focuses on suicide prevention and stigma-free support for all mental health issues.
Depending on the revenge dress’s winning bid, that means Prince William’s noble cause could get a cash influx that some fashion and art experts are pinning at over $1 million, based on the 2023 sale of a Jacques Azagury gown once worn by the People’s Princess. (Sotheby’s own very conservative estimate is around $200,000.)
But New Yorkers won’t have to mortgage their apartments just to see the iconic piece of fashion history up close.
From Dec. 2 to Dec. 8, visitors at the auction house can view the Christina Stambolian design for themselves at Sotheby’s new global headquarters on the Upper East Side — but not before U.K. fans get their chance to glimpse the famous frock during London Fashion Week on Sept. 18.
