A Dress Worn By Princess Diana In Bahrain Is Being Auctioned Off For A Ton Of Money
It was bought in a charity sale for Dhs940 and is now expected to sell for up to Dhs470,000…
On a tour of Oman and Saudi Arabia in 1986, Princess Diana and Prince Charles made a trip to Bahrain to attend a very formal state dinner. Princess Di was photographed at the event in a ivory silk gown adorned with crystals and a single dramatic shoulder design, designed by the Emanuels, who also designed her wedding gown. Even for the late style icon, this dress in particular has stayed on the minds of many – hence why a woman recognised it immediately in a charity shop after seeing it in a documentary about Diana. At the time, she only paid about Dhs940 for the dress, but the one-off custom-made piece will be up for auction on 10 December…and it’s expected to bring in a small fortune.
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How exactly does such a special piece of fashion history end up in the donation pile? The Mirror reported that Diana regularly visited her close friends who lived at Mynde Park Estate, and somehow a housekeeper on the property ended up donating it to a secondhand store in Hereford. The woman who scooped it up says that at the time she knew it had been worn by Diana, but didn’t realize its real “importance”.
One of the UK’s top vintage fashion auctioneers, Kerry Taylor Auctions, will be selling the garment next week and they estimated its worth being somewhere Dhs375,200 – 470,000. The dress will come with a letter from one of the designers, Elizabeth Emanuel, that confirms it’s a custom design just for Diana