When Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles in 1981 the royal family suddenly became a lot more interesting to girls like me.
No longer mothballed and dusty, it now carried an element of glamour that it hadn’t in a while.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only tween to buy a scrap book and start cutting out and collecting photographs from magazines of the princess in all of her beautiful gowns.
Princess Diana was a style icon and quickly becoming the most photographed woman in the world.
One of her most iconic dresses was the Victor Edelstein midnight blue velvet gown that she wore to a state dinner at the White House in 1985, where she famously danced with John Travolta.
On Monday, December 9 that gown will be sold to the highest bidder at the Kerry Taylor Auctions’ Passion for Fashion Auction. It’s expected to sell for somewhere between £250,000 and £346,000.
The state dinner wasn’t the only event the People’s Princess wore it. Known for recycling her garments, she also dazzled in it in 1986 during a state visit to Austria, in 1991 for a night at the Royal Opera House and in 1997 for an official portrait.
She sold the gown two months before her death to a Florida-based businesswoman, Maureen Dunkel and the money was donated to AIDS and cancer charities. It changed hands again when Dunkel went bankrupt. A man who wanted to cheer up his wife bought it via auction. Then in 2018 it was part of a Kensington Palace exhibition, “Diana: Her Fashion Story.”
All this talk of Diana’s Travolta dress got us reminiscing about all of her other fabulous frocks.
Here are some of our favourite gowns from the 1980s that Diana wore:
The ice blue Bellville Sassoon gown and matching choker she wore to the “Splendours of the Gonzaga” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1981.
The aquamarine Bruce Oldfield gown that she wore with metallic belt and matching clutch to a formal dinner in 1983.
Her wedding dress, of course. Declared the “most closely guarded secret in fashion history,” Diana’s wedding dress was a complete mystery until its dramatic unveiling on Princess Diana’s wedding day.
Designed by husband-and-wife team David and Elizabeth Emanuel, Princess Diana’s Alexander McQueen ivory taffeta gown was intricately embroidered with sequins, frilled lace, and 10,000 pearls, putting the value of the gown at an estimated US$115,000.
In 1982 the Princess of Wales attended a Royal Gala Performance that opened the Barbican Arts Centre in London on 4 March 1982. She wore a full length red evening gown by Belville Sassoon.
In May 1987 Diana wore this pale blue silk chiffon strapless dress designed by fashion designer Catherine Walker to The Cannes Film Festival in France. She stepped out in it again in September 1989 when she went to see Miss Saigon in London.
Another Catherine Walker design, The People’s Princess wore this one-shoulder asymmetric black and red floral gown after being called to the Bench as an honorary barrister in October 1988 in Middle Temple in London. She dusted it off to wear again in 1989 when she attended a concert at The Royal Albert Hall.
Diana dazzles in a Bruce Oldfield gown at a banquet in London in 1989 during a State visit by the ruler of The UAE. She also wore this gown to a movie premiere in 1991.
Stunning in a white, crystal-beaded silk chiffon assymetric gown by Japanese designer Hachi, all eyes would have been on Diana as she descended the stairs at a gala dinner at the National Gallery in Washington DC in November 1985.
Again wearing Catherine Walker, this time the Princess of Wales delights in pink. Here she is attending a Royal Ballet performance At The Berlin Opera House, Germany. Those pockets!
This became known as the ‘Elvis dress’. Here, Diana stuns during a visit to the Culture Centre in Hong Kong in 1989. Design by Catherine Walker again.
This was a lot of dress and epitomised the eighties with its bold colour, unmissable shine and strong silhouette. Here, the Princess Of Wales was attending a charity performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre in aid of ‘Help The Hospices’. It was 1987.
It was 1985 and here Princess Diana was arriving for the premiere of the film 2010 In London. She worea satin evening dress deisgned by Murray Arbeid.
Style icon.
