Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales have been splashed all over newspaper pages in recent days, in part because of the forthcoming sale of one of her most famous dresses. (What, did you think I was talking about something else?) Today, I’ve got a closer look at the famous “revenge dress” and the jewels she wore with it—plus an investigation into where each piece is today.
The dress is a short black cocktail dress made of silk crepe, with a pleated bodice, an off-the-shoulder neckline, and a dramatic trailing chiffon train. The dress was made by Christina Stambolian, a Greek designer working in London. Stambolian told the Sunday Mirror in 1998 that Diana had ventured into her Knightsbridge boutique in 1991 with her brother, then Viscount Althorp, in tow. After selecting a few off-the-rack pieces, Diana told Stambolian, “I want a special dress for a special occasion.”
The designer quickly sketched the dress, which Diana originally thought was took risky. “Why not be daring?” Stambolian told her, and Diana agreed. (Lord Althorp, the designer recalled, looked “increasingly bored” during the discussion.) The dress took sixty hours to make, and after one fitting, Diana declared, “I love it.”
But the dress hung, unworn, in Diana’s closet for three years before it finally made its debut. The event in question was a reception and dinner, sponsored by Vanity Fair, at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. Diana had a particular reason to want to look good for the occasion: as she was attending the dinner, her estranged husband was giving a candid televised interview in which he confessed that he had been unfaithful.
Almost immediately, tabloids dubbed the garment the “revenge dress.” Stambolian revealed that Diana had initially bought a different dress to wear at the reception but, at the last minute, had decided to wear the short dress from her closet instead. “I had a job to squeeze into it,” Diana told Stambolian years later.
With the dress, Diana wore several pieces of jewelry from her personal collection: diamond and pearl drop earrings, a seven-row pearl choker with a diamond and sapphire cluster clasp, a sapphire and diamond bracelet, and her diamond and sapphire engagement ring, which was still then stacked with her wedding band.
The dress had precisely the intended effect, becoming one of the most famous pieces that the late Princess ever wore. She parted with it in 1997, selling it with a whole collection of her dresses at Christie’s to raise funds for AIDS Crisis Trust and the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund. In a twist of fate, the latter is the hospital where her future daughter-in-law, the present Princess of Wales, was treated for cancer.
The dress was Lot 2 in the sale, described in the catalogue as “a cocktail dress in black silk crepe.” (Curiously, the catalogue states that the dress was bought “off-the-peg,” contrary to what Stambolian herself has said. The text also wrote that the dress was worn in 1993, not 1994.) The dress was purchased for £39,000 by Graeme Mackenzie, owner of The Body Shop, and his wife, Briege.
The dress has remained with the Mackenzie family ever since. Other aspects of the famous evening at the Serpentine have also been sold off. In June, the Jaguar XJ40 that brought Diana to the event was auctioned, bringing £66,250. The jewelry that she wore, by contrast, has not been sold. We know where some of the pieces are today, and we’re still waiting to learn the whereabouts of the others.
The Pearl Choker with the Sapphire and Diamond Clasp
The necklace that Diana wore for the Serpentine Gallery reception that summer was one of her favorites: a choker made of seven rows of tiny white pearls, linked together by a large clasp featuring a gorgeous blue sapphire surrounded by diamonds. The clasp, which was given to Diana by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, neatly echoed the shape of Diana’s engagement ring. Above, Diana wears the necklace with a pair of diamond and sapphire earrings (now worn by her daughter-in-law, Catherine) to attend a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1991.
Diana wore the necklace on numerous notable occasions throughout her marriage. In 1985, she famously danced with John Travolta at the White House while wearing the necklace. She continued to wear the jewel even after her separation and divorce from Charles. She made her final appearance in the jewel at the Met Gala in 1996.
Because it was a personal piece rather than a royal loan, the necklace is almost certainly still part of the collection of her private jewelry today. Those pieces have been largely divvied up by her sons, William and Harry, for use by their wives, Catherine and Meghan. But so far, we haven’t seen either the Princess of Wales or the Duchess of Sussex wear the necklace in public. (I live in hope—this is the “missing” piece of Diana’s jewelry that I most want to see return to the spotlight.)
The Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings
The earrings that Diana wore with the “revenge dress” echoed the pearls in the choker necklace. These classic diamond and pearl drop earrings were given to her by Collingwood, one of the Spencer family’s favorite jewelers, as an engagement present in 1981. She wore them regularly throughout her marriage, often pairing them with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, as shown here during a tour of Canada in 1986.
The pearl drop earrings (and the Lover’s Knot Tiara) are now worn by Prince William’s wife, Catherine. She wore them in public for the first time during the Spanish state visit in 2017, and they’ve been some of her go-to earrings ever since. Here, she wears them for the welcome ceremony during the French state visit in July 2025.
The Diamond and Cabochon Sapphire Bracelets
This unique pair of bracelets, set with diamonds and rounded cabochon sapphires in a checkerboard-style pattern, arrived in Diana’s jewelry collection in the 1980s. Though she most frequently wore them as bracelets, often together with one on each wrist, they could also be linked together and worn as part of a modern necklace. Diana wore the piece in that setting for a dinner in honor of the Emir of Qatar in 1985.
Diana memorably wore the bracelets together for a charity gala at the Palace of Versailles in 1994. She also wore them to receive a humanitarian award from the United Cerebral Palsy Society in New York a year later. On both occasions, she paired them with diamond and pearl drop earrings, the tops of which are now worn by Catherine. Like the pearl choker, the bracelets have not been seen in public since Diana’s death. They seem like they would pair well with Diana’s cabochon sapphire butterfly earrings, which are now worn by Meghan.
The Sapphire and Diamond Engagement Ring
No piece of Diana’s jewelry is more iconic than her engagement ring, a sapphire and diamond cluster chosen by her in 1981 from a selection provided by Garrard. Diana wore the ring in public for the first time when the royal engagement was announced in February of that year, and she continued to wear it for the next sixteen years, even after she and Charles divorced.
The ring, of course, is now worn by her daughter-in-law, Catherine. Prince William presented it to Kate in Kenya in November 2010, and she revealed it to the world when they officially announced their engagement a few weeks later. The ring can still be regularly spotted on Catherine’s left hand today, usually stacked with her wedding band and a pair of sparkling eternity rings.
The dress worn with those famous jewels on the memorable night of June 29, 1994 will soon be sold for a second time. The Mackenzie family has decided to part with the dress, and Sotheby’s has been tasked with selling it. The “revenge dress” will be sold in New York on December 9, 2026. It’s expected to bring between $150,000-$300,000 when the hammer falls.
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