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EVENT DESCRIPTION
Julien’s Auctions, the industry-leading Hollywood auction house, announced their upcoming showcases of “PRINCESS DIANA’S ELEGANCE & A ROYAL COLLECTION,” their exclusive auction event coming this summer 2024. The public will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view highlights of a dazzling collection of the Princess of Wales’ most famous attire in Asia and Europe before its auction beginning at a Pop Up at K11 MUSEA in Hong Kong from April 18th- April 29th and exhibition at The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Ireland June 11th-June 27th.
A portion of the auction proceeds will benefit Muscular Dystrophy UK, the leading charity for over 110,000 people in the UK living with one of over 60 muscle-wasting and weakening conditions.
On display will be Diana’s highly glamourous gowns worn in her most photographed appearances such as a Murray Arbeid midnight blue strapless tulle Diamante Star gown with a fitted bodice worn by Princess Diana twice in 1986, at the Phantom of the Opera premiere and to a dinner at Claridge’s for King Constantine of Greece. Diana was also photographed in the gown by Lord Snowdon in 1997 for her charity auction.
Another showstopping item is a magenta silk and lace evening dress designed by Victor Edelstein that she wore in London and in Hamburg, Germany in 1987. The off-the-shoulder dress with banded lace sleeves features a Spanish flamenco-style skirt with three tiers of gathered lace flounces. Edelstein first met Diana when she was pregnant with Prince William and would go on to produce Diana’s most influential look–an ink-blue velvet gown with a mermaid tail skirt that she wore when she danced with John Travolta at The White House.
Some of Diana’s style-defining ensembles created by one of the Princess’s closest collaborators, Catherine Walker, will be presented, such as the pink floral shirt dress designed by Walker for her clothing label The Chelsea Design Company as seen worn by Diana in photographs in 1991, leaving St. Mary’s Hospital in London and in 1992 leaving Prince Harry’s school in Notting Hill; a Victorian revival evening gown featuring a fitted bodice with a Basque waist and a full voluminous skirt with under layers of tulle petticoats designed by Walker, not worn in public; and Walker’s two-piece yellow and navy skirt suit she was photographed wearing in 1989 in Hong Kong during a visit to Tamar, a British Forces shore base and the Red Cross, and when Diana gave a speech and awarded the Gopaul family the award for Family of the Year in London in 1990.
Other highlights include many of Diana’s shoes, handbags, and hats that changed Royal Fashion accessorizing such as her Kurt Geiger emerald green satin jewelled vamp evening shoes worn to a state banquet at the Dorchester Hotel in London; a striking yellow and black felted wool turban style hat designed by Royal milliner Philip Somerville for Princess Diana, photographed wearing it in Berlin, Germany in 1987 and Somerville’s cream and red lacquered straw wide-brim hat accented with three Calla Lilies sewn at the side that Diana was photographed wearing at a Garter ceremony and on a Royal Tour in Australia in 1985; a Rayne violet leather semi-circle clutch she was photographed holding several times in 1990, on an official visit to Washington D.C. where she and First Lady Barbra Bush visited AIDS patients and during her royal tour in India where she toured the Taj Mahal in 1992; a Rayne white and red leather envelope clutch Diana was photographed holding on visits to Cambridge in 1988 and 1989 and on tour in Saudi Arabia and Kyoto, Japan in 1986 while trying on a hand-painted silk kimono worth 40,000 pounds at the time, and more.
