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The black dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, for her first official
appearance with the Prince of Wales shortly before their engagement in 1981
surfaces at auction this summer.
It was rumoured that the Princess had destroyed the black taffeta gown -
but it turned up recently in a wardrobe at the studio of dress makers David and
Elizabeth Emanuel.
Now the iconic dress is set to fetch up to £50,000 when it appears at Kerry
Taylor Auctions in London on June 8.
The dress caused a sensation when Lady Diana Spencer, as she then was, bent
down to climb out of the car. She was met with a frenzy of flash bulbs and next
day's newspapers included the headline: "Daring Di sets fashion as she takes the
plunge".
But while 19 year old Lady Diana thought that black was elegant and
grown-up, it was deemed an unusual choice as the Royal family wear the color
almost exclusively for mourning.
The public, however, went wild over the dress. In the run-up to her
wedding, the nervous fiancée lost so much weight that she returned the gown to
the Emanuels to have it taken in. The alterations required were so drastic that
they decided it would be easier to re-make a smaller version for her. They kept
the original and forgot about it, only re-discovering it quite recently.
This gown forms part of the Emanuel Archive of Princess Diana-related
material comprising 30 lots ranging from actual clothes worn by the Princess to
fashion sketches, invoices, letters and related ephemera and expected to fetch a
total of up to £175, 000. It charts the transformation of the Princess from a
young, inexperienced teenager into a world-renowned style icon.
A large part of the Emanuel Archive focuses on the Royal wedding gown and
includes original designs and toiles for the bridal gown and bridesmaid dresses,
the layered tulle petticoat worn by the Princess for fittings and rehearsals at
St Pauls Cathedral, a duplicate sequined veil, invoices, letters from the
Princess' mother, correspondence with Buckingham Palace and a photographic
record of the making of the bridal gown. The collection also features fashion
designs for the Princess' official tours to Venice 1984 and the Middle East in
1986.
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