…By Larry John for TDPel Media.
Claudia Joseph’s new book “Diana: A Life in Dresses, from Debutante to Style Icon” tells the story of how a trio of Princess Diana’s most famous dresses were rescued from a second-hand shop.
Sarah Ferguson’s mother, Susan Barrantes, found herself in possession of Diana’s dresses after her death in 1997.
According to Claudia Joseph, a source confirmed to her that Barrantes dropped off a green tartan dress, a turquoise Catherine Walker dress, and a tartan coat created by her wedding dressmakers at an upmarket Hampshire second-hand shop.
The Dresses’ History:
The green tartan dress that Diana wore to the Braemar Highland Games in September 1982, the turquoise Catherine Walker dress she packed for a royal tour of Australia and New Zealand in April 1983, and the tartan coat created by her wedding dressmakers for her 1985 visit to Italy were purchased at an auction by Historic Palaces England.
Another evening gown that Diana sported in Bahrain in 1986 ended up in a clothes shop in Hereford, having likely been given to her childhood friend, Caroline Twiston-Davies.
It was later bought by the shop’s part-time sales assistant, who had intended to wear it herself to a hunt ball, but realizing its historical significance, packed it away in a box and sold it at an auction in 2018 for £162,500.
Conclusion:
Even before Diana’s death, Christie’s raised £1.96 million for her favorite AIDS charities by auctioning off 79 of her dresses in New York.
Many of these dresses are now in public hands.
The retrieved dresses are now treated as historical artefacts in a temperature-controlled clothing archive, as part of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection storage facility at Hampton Court.
It is interesting to note how the ownership of the dresses has changed over time and how they have become valuable historical artefacts.