PRINCESS DIANA’S FAMOUS “revenge dress” is to be auctioned in December. 

The black silk gown will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York, where it is expected to sell for up to £220,000 (€256,000).

Diana hit headlines when she was photographed wearing the dress to a Vanity Fair fundraising dinner at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1994.

It was the same night her then-husband, Britain’s Prince Charles – now King Charles – publicly admitted his infidelity on national television during an interview. The term ‘revenge dress’ was subsequently coined by the media.

It is the first time the dress has been up for auction since 1997. Sotheby's Sotheby's

Designed by Christina Stambolian, the dress quickly became a fashion statement.

It marks its first sale since June 1997 when Diana sold 79 of her dresses to raise funds to benefit cancer and Aids charities.

She died in a car crash in Paris the following month. 

Part of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, which is dedicated to funding extra care, equipment and projects.

It will also be sold alongside a copy of the original catalogue, numbered and signed by Diana and Greek designer Stambolian, crediting Charles with the idea of the charity fundraiser.

The dress was designed by Christina Stambolian. Sotheby's Sotheby's

The consignor, who bought the dress during its original sale, said: “My late husband and I knew that this dress was something special.

“Princess Diana was walking into the worst night of her life and you would never know it to look at her. It went from a cocktail dress to a statement in the time it took to photograph her,” they said. 

“Thirty years on, you can say the words anywhere in the world and everyone knows exactly which dress you mean.”

Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said Diana understood that “fashion can be a language when words fail or are simply not enough”. 

“What makes this dress extraordinary is not merely that it was worn by the princess, nor that its appearance at the Serpentine event made headlines around the world. It is what it communicated,” she said. 

“What became a global viral moment – long before social media made the term mundane – also gave licence to anyone, but especially women, to use fashion beyond adornment and much more intentionally and meaningfully: as a shield, a weapon or both.”

Before going up for auction, the dress will go on display in Sotheby’s locations London, Hong Kong, Geneva and New York before the auction there on 9 December.