'Largest Princess Diana auction' features frocks, hats and bags
NEWBRIDGE, Ireland (Reuters) - From colourful frocks and hats to handbags and shoes, items belonging to the late Princess Diana go under the hammer this month in what Julien's Auctions says is the largest collection of her fashion to go to auction.
The live and online "Princess Diana's Style & A Royal Collection" sale will take place on June 26 at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, offering an array of fashion items Diana wore.
"This is the largest Princess Diana auction because we have over 100 items from her amazing life and career...keeping in mind Diana herself...sold over 70 of her dresses...back in 1997 to raise money for her charity," Martin Nolan, executive director and co-founder of Julien's Auctions, told Reuters on Monday. He was speaking at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge in Ireland during a pre-sale exhibition.
Among the highlights is a 1988 silk floral dress by Bellville Sassoon, dubbed the "caring dress" because Diana wore it several times on hospital visits, with a price estimate of $200,000-$300,000.
A cream silk embroidered evening gown Catherine Walker designed for Diana's 1986 Gulf tour has a similar price tag, while a Bruce Oldfield two-piece yellow floral ensemble she wore for Royal Ascot in 1987 is estimated at $100,000-$200,000.
Other sale items include a Dior handbag gifted to her by former French first lady Bernadette Chirac in 1995, a sketch of Diana's 1981 wedding dress with tulle fabric cut-offs from when she married then Prince Charles in 1981 and a peach hat she wore for her honeymoon send-off.
The auction also includes pieces belonging to other British royals including the late Queen Elizabeth II and the queen mother.
Nolan said Julien's Auctions had previously sold a dress belonging to Diana for $1.14 million.
"People do consider these items as an asset class now, because if people own these items today, chances are in years to come they will sell them for more than what they pay for (at) auction," he said.
Part of the proceeds from the sale of Diana's items will go to charity Muscular Dystrophy UK.
The pre-sale exhibition in Newbridge will run until June 17.
(Reporting by Clodagh Kilcoyne; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Britain's Catherine picks fairy costume, Beatrix Potter for museum exhibit
Catherine's mini display will be available for viewing at the V&A East Storehouse in London until early 2026. Photo: Reuters A watercolour by beloved children's author Beatrix Potter and a fairy costume for a 1960 ballet are among the objects chosen by Britain's Princess Catherine for a display at an innovative British museum. Catherine, the Princess of Wales also known as Kate, chose costumes, paintings and furniture from the V&A's large collection for her "mini display". The princess's Makers and Creators display follows her visit to the museum's storehouse and new "on-demand" visitor attraction last month. In a message from Kate, she wrote: "Objects can tell a story. A collection of objects can create a narrative, both about our past and as inspiration for the future." "Individual, unique objects can come together to create a collective whole that helps us to explore our social and cultural experiences and the role we play in the wider tapestry of life." Her selection of objects includes a blue-and-white Qing dynasty porcelain vase made between 1662 and 1722, a costume for the Fairy of the Woodland Glade by the designer Oliver Messel for the Royal Ballet's 1960 production of The Sleeping Beauty a nd a watercolour painting of a forest glade by Potter. Other items highlight a handmade quilt from Wales dating from 1830 to 1840 and a 15th century earthenware tile from the southern country of Somerset. The mini display celebrates past creators and shows "how historic objects can influence fashion, design, film, art, and creativity today," said the V&A. It also mirrors Kate's love of nature, and interest in nurturing educational development in young children. Visitors will be able to examine the objects up close by using the free Order an Object service. Members of the public can select items on the museum's online catalogue and book an appointment to spend time with the objects with the help of a museum staff member. One fifth of the museum's total collection is available to be viewed and enjoyed in the four-storey building on the former site of the 2012 London Olympic Games. Catherine's display will be available for viewing at the V&A East Storehouse until early 2026. - AFP
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Roblox raises annual bookings forecast as viral hits spur spending boom
FILE PHOTO: The Roblox logo is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File photo (Reuters) -Roblox raised its forecast for annual bookings on Thursday and crossed 100 million in daily active users on its videogame platform, riding on the success of viral hits such as "Grow a Garden" and sending its shares up 19% before the bell. Many of the platform's games have become highly popular due to their free-to-play nature and wide availability, drawing millions of users across diverse age groups and demographics. Average daily active users, a key measure of engagement, grew 41% to 111.8 million in the second quarter, while hours engaged jumped 58% to 27.4 billion. A large portion of the engagement and bookings growth in the second quarter came from "Grow a Garden", a tycoon-style game which allows players to grow their plots of land by trading seeds and plants. In June, the game set a world record for the most concurrent players to play a videogame, highlighting Roblox's reach across geographies. The company has been investing in search and discovery features that allow greater visibility for games like "Grow a Garden", with already healthy engagements, the company's newly appointed CFO, Naveen Chopra, told Reuters. In an uncertain economy, Roblox is diversifying its revenue sources beyond gaming and turning the platform into a hub for socializing, commerce and advertising. Such efforts have excited investors, who have more than doubled the company's shares so far this year, far outperforming rival videogame publishers. Roblox now expects fiscal 2025 bookings of between $5.87 billion and $5.97 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $5.29 billion to $5.36 billion. It forecast third-quarter bookings between $1.59 billion and $1.64 billion, compared with an estimate of $1.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Bookings for the second quarter came in at $1.44 billion, beating market estimates of $1.24 billion. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
New Straits Times
6 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Vatican embraces social media 'digital missionaries'
SISTER Albertine, a youthful French Catholic nun, stood outside the Vatican, phone in hand, ready to shoot more videos for her hundreds of thousands of followers online. The 29-year-old nun, whose secular name is Albertine Debacker, is one of hundreds of Catholic influencers in Rome for a Vatican-organised social media summit this week. The Vatican calls them "digital missionaries" and – in an unprecedented move for the centuries-old institution – Pope Leo XIV led a mass dedicated to them at St Peter's Basilica, calling on them to create content for those who "need to know the Lord." Long wary of social media, the Catholic Church now sees it as a vital tool to spread the faith amid dwindling church attendance. For Sister Albertine, this is the ideal "missionary terrain." Inside the Baroque basilica, she was one of a swarm of religious influencers who surrounded the new pope, live streaming the meeting on their smartphones within one of Christianity's most sacred spots. She said it was highly symbolic that the Vatican organised the event bringing together its Instagramming-disciples. "It tells us: 'it's important, go for it, we're with you and we'll search together how we can take this new evangelisation forward," she told AFP. The influencer summit was held as part of the Vatican's "Jubilee of Youth", as young believers flooded Rome this week. Sister Albertine has 320,000 followers on Instagram and some of her TikTok videos get more than a million views. She shares a mix of prayers with episodes from daily religious life, often from French abbeys. "You feel alone and I suggest that we can pray together," she said in one video, crossing herself. But, as religious content spreads online in the social media and AI era, one of the reasons behind the Vatican's summit was for it to express its position on the trend. "You are not only influencers, you are missionaries," influential Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle – one of the few Vatican officials active on social media - told those attending mass. The "great influencer is God", he added. But Tagle also warned that "Jesus is not a voice generated by a digital programme." Pope Leo called on his online followers to strike a balance at a time when society is "hyperconnected" and "bombarded with images, sometimes false or distorted." "It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter between hearts," said the American pope, 69. It is this balance that has been hard to strike, with some Catholic clerics themselves embracing a social media presence. Father Giuseppe Fusari does not look like a regular priest: wearing tight shirts exposing his arm tattoos. To his 63,000 followers on Instagram, he mixes content about Italian church architecture and preaching. Fusari told AFP there is no reason Catholic clerics should not embrace the world of online videos. "Everyone uses social media, so it's important that we're there too," said Fusari, who came to Rome for the influencer event from the northern city of Brescia. Fusari said his goal was to reach as many people as possible online, sharing the "word of God" with them. This also takes the form of sharing videos of his chihuahua eating spaghetti. But priests and nuns are not the only ones trying to attract people to the Church online, with regular believers spreading the faith too. Francesca Parisi, a 31-year-old Italian teacher, joined the Catholic Church later in life. She now has some 20,000 followers on TikTok, where she tries to make the Catholic faith look trendy. Her target audience? People who have "drifted away" from the church. It's possible, she said, to lure them back through their smartphones. "If God did it with me, rest assured, he can also do it with you."
