One of Princess Diana’s 'favourite' dresses worn in 1997 Vanity Fair shoot to be auctioned in US

Diana, then-Princess of Wales, in 1997. Credit: PA/Sothebys

One of Princess Diana's "favourite" dresses is to be put up for auction in the US.

The purple velvet dress by Victor Edelstein was worn by Diana in a royal portrait alongside the-then Prince of Wales in 1991, and later appeared in a Vanity Fair shoot in 1997.

The dress will be sold during a Sotheby’s auction in New York on January 27 and is expected to fetch between $80,000 -$120,000 (around £65,600 - £96,800).

Cynthia Houlton, Sotheby's Global Head of Fashion and Accessories said: "Victor Edelstein was Princess Diana's designer for ten years.

"So obviously, he designed a lot of dresses for her. But this specific dress was also one of her favourites.

"Princess Diana has famously been photographed in professional portraits twice in this dress - So that makes it special."

The dress worn by Princess Diana is to go on sale at Sothebys. Credit: AP

In 1991, British painter Douglas Hardinge Anderson depicted Diana wearing the dress in a painting now hung at the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund, which the princess visited.

"I think this dress is going to be attractive to a lot of different buyers," Ms Houlton added.

"There are certainly museums that are interested in having pieces like this for archival reasons (and) there are certainly celebrities we know that have an interest in Princess Diana."

The dress is to be sold alongside other iconic items as part of Sotheby's "The One" auction.

A Lebron James jersey among items for sale in a Sotheby's auction called 'The One'. Credit: AP

An invitation to President John F Kennedy's famous birthday party - when Marilyn Monroe burst out of a cake - is also part of the auction, alongside basketball player Lebron James' game 7 jersey from the 2013 NBA finals.

"'The One' auction is really a sale of truly unique items of various historical significance in addition to human significance," Ms Houlton said.

"If we think of some of the sports memorabilia, of the accomplishments of both humans and art, it's really trying to take a different view of how we think about some of these objects - all of them being truly unique."


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