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As per Vogue, the famous black silk dress by designer Christina Stambolian will headline Sotheby’s standalone fashion evening auction in New York on December 9. The gown is expected to fetch between $150,000 (Rs 1.4 crore) and $300,000 (Rs 2.8 crore). Before the sale, it will go on display in London, Hong Kong and Geneva.

Why Is It Called The ‘Revenge Dress’?

Princess Diana wore the off-the-shoulder black dress to a Vanity Fair party at London’s Serpentine Gallery in June 1994. The appearance came on the same day that an explosive television interview with her estranged husband, then-Prince Charles, was due to air. In the interview, Charles addressed his infidelity during his marriage to Diana.

Diana had initially planned to wear a different outfit to the event but changed her mind at the last minute. She had actually owned the Stambolian dress for three years, but had previously considered it too daring to wear publicly.

The outfit was later dubbed the “Revenge Dress”, a nickname that has endured for decades and has come to represent the way fashion can be used to project confidence during a very public personal crisis.

Diana’s revenge dress. (Photo: X)

The Dress’s Journey After Diana

The Serpentine appearance was the only time Diana wore the Stambolian creation publicly. Three years later, she put it up for auction along with 78 other gowns, raising money for cancer and AIDS charities.

According to Forbes, the dress was initially sold in 1997 for $24,150, or around Rs 9.4 lakh at the time, to Scottish businessman Graeme Mackenzie. The wider auction raised around $3 million for charity.

The dress returned to Sotheby’s in New York in 2023, when four bidders competed for it. It eventually sold for $604,800, which was approximately Rs 54.2 crore based on the exchange rate cited at the time.

Its upcoming auction will once again have a charitable element. A portion of the proceeds from the December sale will benefit NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Hospital of Edinburgh.

Princess Diana’s Marriage To Charles

The story behind the dress dates back to the troubled final years of Diana and Charles’ marriage. Speculation about problems in their relationship intensified in the early 1990s, before then-British Prime Minister John Major formally announced their separation in 1992.

Their divorce was finalised in 1996. Around the same period, Charles publicly acknowledged his infidelity. His relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, which had long been the subject of speculation, eventually became public knowledge. Charles and Camilla married in 2005.

Reflecting on the impact of Charles’ admission on Diana, PEOPLE Executive Editorial Director Michelle Tauber said on PEOPLE’s “Diana Diaries”, “On a human level, for Diana, you can only imagine how upsetting that would have been, not only to hear that but to know that now the world has heard it. Effectively, Charles has aired some serious dirty laundry.”

PEOPLE Deputy Style Director Brittany Talarico also highlighted the attention Diana would have known she was likely to receive at the event. “Of course, Diana knew that all eyes were going to be on her,” she said.

Designer Christina Stambolian had herself expressed frustration that Diana had kept the dress unworn for years. “Three years went by and she hadn’t worn it. I was very disappointed,” Stambolian recalled in Claudia Joseph’s 2022 book Diana: A Life in Dresses, as reported by HuffPost UK.

Decades later, the dress remains more than just a piece of fashion history.