Princess Diana’s 12 Most Expensive Dresses, Which Sold for Up to $1.1 Million
Princess Diana and Prince Charles at the 40th International Cannes Film Festival, on May 15, 1987.Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty ImagesThe Gist
Many of Princess Diana’s dresses have been auctioned off for between $100,000 and $1 million.
The most expensive dress worn by the late royal to be sold at auction is a 1985 Jacques Azagury evening dress, which sold for $1.14 million in 2023.
Diana’s famous “Revenge Dress” will be auctioned off in December 2026 by Sotheby’s.
Some of Princess Diana’s most famous dresses have hit the auction block, often to raise funds for causes which were close to the late royal’s heart.
The first major auction of her clothing came in June 1997, when she sold 79 of her dresses at the suggestion of her son, Prince William (per AP). The auction, held at Christie’s, raised over $3 million for cancer and AIDS research.
Diana’s joint legacies as a humanitarian and fashion icon continue to endear her memory to new generations. Diana’s bespoke Catherine Walker, Bruce Oldfield, and Belville Sassoon gowns sold at auction are more than glittering reminders of her singular sense of style—they’re mementos from a life devoted to helping others.
Unlike her dresses, the former Princess of Wales’s coats are rarely up for bid. Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien’s Auctions, told People in 2025 the touching reason why. “You never see a coat from Diana come to auction, because she used to get her butler or her staff or friends to drive around London, [in] January, February, [in the] freezing cold,” he explained. “She’d find homeless people, and she would give her coats away. That’s how she was—without any spectacle or whatever.”
In December 2026, one of her most recognizable dresses will hit the auction block at Sotheby’s: her “Revenge Dress,” a black, off-the-shoulder Christina Stambolian frock she wore to a 1994 gala. Its ‘revenge’ moniker comes from the fact that Diana was photographed wearing the look the same night her then-husband Prince Charles publicly admitted that he’d had an affair during their marriage.
Ahead, find out what Princess Diana’s dresses have sold for at auction—including a record-setting look that fetched over $1 million. Plus, learn the stories behind each memorable design.
01 of 12
1985 Jacques Azagury Evening Dress
Princess Diana and Prince Charles attend the Mayor’s dinner on a visit to Florence in April 1985.Credit: Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images
With a drop waist, oversized bow, and unique celestial pattern, Diana’s velvet Jacques Azagury gown instantly became one of her most memorable when she debuted it on a 1985 trip to Florence. She rewore it once, during a 1986 Royal Tour of British Columbia. In December 2023, the starry dress set a new world record for the most expensive dress worn by Princess Diana sold at auction (via Julien’s Auctions), with a final price of $1.14 million.
02 of 12
1987 Victor Edelstein Magenta Evening Dress
Princess Diana wearing a 1987 Victor Edelstein magenta lace dress in Hamburg.Credit: Hartwig Valdmanis/United Archives via Getty Images
The princess was a gothic vision when she wore a magenta silk and lace dress by Victor Edelstein in January 1987. She wore it again the same year on a trip to Hamburg, Germany, according to Julien’s. Edelstein is best known for designing Diana’s ‘Travolta Dress,’ which she wore when she danced with actor John Travolta at the White House in 1985. The 1987 magenta evening dress sold for $910,000 through Julien’s Auctions in June 2024.
03 of 12
1986 Murray Arbeid Midnight Blue Star Gown
Princess Diana at the premiere of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ in October 1986.Credit: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
Diana outshone all the stars in the sky when she debuted a midnight blue Murray Arbeid dress, adorned with diamanté stones, at the Phantom of the Opera London premiere in October 1986. The stunning strapless gown would appear two more times—at a July 1986 dinner and a Royal Opera House performance of Cinderella, given in December 1987. At Julien’s June 2024 auction, it sold for $780,000.
04 of 12
1989 Victor Edelstein Ball Dress
Princess Diana’s tulip-shaped Infanta-style ball dress by Victor Edelstein.Credit: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Edelstein created an aubergine ball dress with a tulip-shaped skirt for his Autumn 1989 collection, but sketches show the outline of a tiara, suggesting he’d always had Diana in mind for the royal look. The princess wore it in a 1991 official portrait with then-husband Prince Charles. Franklin Mint later recreated the dress on a doll of Diana in 1998. When the (life-sized) Infanta-style Edelstein creation went up for auction through Sotheby’s in 2023, it sparked a bidding war before going for $604,800, per Vogue.
05 of 12
Catherine Walker Black Velvet Evening Gown
Princess Diana’s Catherine Walker black velvet evening gown on display in Hong Kong in 2024.Credit: Li Peiyun/VCG via Getty Images
Diana loved a good frill, which might explain why she was drawn to a black velvet evening gown with a romantic lace detail extending from shoulders to bodice. The bewitching look was never photographed in public, but came from one of her favorite designers: Catherine Walker. Put up for auction in June 2024 through Julien’s Auctions, it sold for $571,500.
06 of 12
1991 Catherine Walker Black and Jade Dress
Princess Diana in Canada for a gala dinner in October 1991.Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
The black and green asymmetrical gown Princess Diana wore in October 1991 marks a specific moment in her royal tenure—the final royal tour she took with her husband and their sons before she separated from Charles in 1992. A Catherine Walker design, the dress features a faille bodice and a silk-crepe skirt with a slit at the back. It sold at Julien’s in September 2023 for $571,500.
07 of 12
Bellville Sassoon ‘Caring Dress’
Princess Diana shaking hands with Renae Plant in 1988. Plant bought Diana’s dress in 2025.Credit: Kent Gavin/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Representing both her playful fashion sense and her commitment to humanitarian work, Diana’s ‘Caring Dress’—a vibrant floral number by Bellville Sassoon—played a part in many meaningful moments in her royal career. She wore it during visits to hospitals and engagements with sick children, reportedly because she knew that children would like the colors of the outfit. The dress sold for $520,000 in June 2025 through Julien’s. Its buyer? Renae Plant, a woman who’d met Diana as a child in 1988 when the princess visited Australia wearing the ‘Caring Dress.’
08 of 12
Catherine Walker Black and Ivory Dress
Left: Catherine Walker black and ivory dress worn by Princess Diana.Credit: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images
Another dress not publicly photographed—having been worn by Diana at a private event—is a black and white strapless gown from Catherine Walker. The elegant look is simpler than many of the princess’s other garments, with a hidden zip closure adding to its ‘quiet luxury’ aesthetic. During a September 2023 Julien’s auction it sold for $508,000.
09 of 12
1986 Catherine Walker Falcon Evening Gown
A person views (left) a Princess Diana 1986 Catherine Walker falcon evening gown.Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images
Method dressing may be all over the red carpet now, but Diana was ahead of the curve with the thoughtful Catherine Walker evening gown she wore on her 1986 Gulf Tour. The long-sleeved cream dress features a flock of embroidered gold birds going up the bodice and snaking down the back across a sweeping train. Walker chose to add the gold falcon motif because falcons were the national bird of Saudi Arabia, per the auction listing. The look sold for $455,000 at Julien’s.
10 of 12
1995 Catherine Walker Pinstripe Coat Dress
Princess Diana leaving the Carlyle Hotel in NYC, January 31, 1995.Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Much like her daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, Princess Diana often appeared in tailored coat dresses. This one, by the late Princess’s favorite designer, Catherine Walker, fetched $455,000 at auction in June 2024. While less flashy than her evening gowns, the navy wool pinstripe number suited the occasion: a January 1995 trip to New York to receive the United Cerebral Palsy Humanitarian of the Year award, according to Julien’s.
11 of 12
1985 Catherine Walker Striped-Hem Velvet Dress
Princess Diana’s black velvet cocktail dress at Julien’s Auctions on January 11, 2024.Credit: Unique Nicole/Getty Images
Another of Diana’s dresses that was never worn in public is a black silk velvet cocktail dress with a striped neckline and hem detail. The playful Catherine Walker frock has “a princess-seamed bodice with a boned interior bustier,” auction house Julien’s said in a statement republished by E! News. “The bias-cut ivory satin accents are sewn at the neckline, cuffs, and hem,” the house added, noting that the dress is lined with black silk. Diana reportedly wore it to a private event in 1985; it sold for $325,000 in 2024.
12 of 12
1987 Cannes Film Festival Dress
Princess Diana at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival in France.Credit: Getty Images
One of the princess’s most iconic dresses (albeit one of her less expensive based on its sale price at auction) was the icy blue gown she wore to the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. It was her first and only appearance at the storied gathering of cinema’s tastemakers. Diana showed up in a strapless silk chiffon number with a matching stole, crafted by Catherine Walker as a nod to a similar Grace Kelly look from To Catch a Thief. In 2011, Julien’s auctioned off the dress for $132,000, per Today.
on InStyle
Source: Entertainment