Princess Di gowns fetch $1.2 million at auction

Ten dresses worn by the late Princess Diana, including a velvet midnight blue gown she famously danced in with John Travolta at the White House in 1985 fetched more than $1.2 million at a London auction on Tuesday. The Victor Edelstein creation worn at the US gala dinner was the top lot of the sale, held by fashion specialists Kerry Taylor Auctions, selling for $362,470, within the pre-sale estimates.

A beaded black Catherine Walker evening gown worn by Diana in a Vanity Fair fashion shoot by photographer Mario Testino raised $163,091, as did a crushed velvet burgundy dress by the same designer donned by the then Princess of Wales during a state visit to Australia.

Diana originally sold the pieces at a charity auction in New York shortly before she was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in August 1997. The selection of mainly evening gowns charted the former royal’s style evolution from ingénue to global fashion icon, a transformation that captivated the world as much as her private life.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2013.

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