4 days ago
Lifelong Fan of Princess Diana Mortgages Home Four Times to Purchase Items Connected to Royal
A chance encounter at age 12 with Princess Diana set Renae Plant on her lifelong mission to assemble a veritable museum of the late style icon's most memorable outfits.
In fact, Renae mortgaged her home for the fourth time to secure 35 items connected to Di at the recent Princess Diana's Style & A Royal Collection sale in L.A., held by Julien's Auctions. She bid nearly $700,000 on a single dress: the famous Caring Dress (pictured), which the People's Princess wore during her second Australian tour in 1988.
Renae's love for the late princess began with their run-in during Diana's first Australian tour in 1983. Renae skipped school to go to a factory in Yandina, Queensland, Australia, where Diana and then-Prince Charles were touring. Renae was shocked when Di saw her, made a bee-line and shook her hand. 'I was so enamored when I saw her … she was so beautiful,' recalls Renae, now 54.
Mesmerized, the young girl ducked under a barricade and walked behind a procession of guards and ladies in waiting. It was then she noticed Diana had dropped a clay platypus someone had given her.
'I ran over to the police and said, 'Lady Di dropped this,'' Renae shares. 'He looked at me and said, 'She must have dropped this to give to you.' That tiny platypus sent me on a trajectory I could never have imagined.'
All of the Diana items Renae has acquired over the years can be seen online at The Princess & The Platypus Foundation's Princess Diana Museum, named after Renae's run-in with Di, of course.
Today, the museum contains 'tens and tens of millions' of dollars' worth of items. The roughly 2,730 pieces include the 1991 Versace dress Di wore on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and a pair of stunning diamond-and-pearl earrings given to the princess by Queen Elizabeth herself.
Renae's recent auction win also includes the famed Falcon Dress, a custom cream silk crepe embroidered evening gown designed by Catherine Walker and worn by Diana on her 1986 Gulf Tour.
The Di devotee is glad to have added the items to her collection. 'I feel so blessed to be able to preserve Diana's legacy,' Renae says. 'I truly believe she was looking over us. She knew those pieces had to end up in the Princess Diana Museum. Angels were looking over me, and I know she was one of them for sure.'
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