Three Iconic Princess Diana Dresses Are Being Auctioned Off

Nearly two decades after Princess Diana's death, Kerry Taylor Auctions is auctioning off three dresses she wore. Before deciding to give them up — or even realizing they'd been the princess's — a mother and daughter had bought the first two in a vintage shop. Princess Diana showed up in one of them alongside Prince Charles at the Braemar Highland Games in 1982. It's a brown Caroline Charles with a white collar and cuffs. "This dress was worn a year after Charles and Diana married and it was such a happy and relaxed moment," Taylor told The Telegraph. "We see her laughing with the Queen in that dress. It's part of a happy interlude — the calm before the storm." Another — a long, bright turquoise, silk dress by Catherine Walker — was worn on a tour in New Zealand and Australia the following year. There's a photograph of the princess wearing it while greeting a Maori tribe with a nose-rub. It's only £600, since its last owner spilled champagne on it at a wedding. The third — a velvet, strapless, purple gown — is far more expensive, predicted to go for £70,000. Bruce Oldfield made it for her to wear to a 1987 dinner hosted by Portugal's president in Lisbon. To Taylor, these pieces represent far more than the opportunity to look elegant. "The people looking to buy at these auctions aren't doing it for the fashion but for the Princess alone," she told The Telegraph. "When you think of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and even Diana, they are these personalities who were beautiful and died young. There's the sense of tragedy about a life cut short, the romance of unfinished business. The fact they will never grow old or have a bad hair day adds to the specialness."