In June 1981, a month before her royal wedding at St. Paul's Cathedral, Lady Diana Spencer attended a polo match for her fiancé, Prince Charles, wearing a red wool sweater with rows of white sheep and one single black sheep towards the centre. The sweater was designed by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne for their knitwear label Warm & Wonderful as one of their first designs in 1979. Diana wearing the sweater was photographed everywhere, positioning the future princess as a fashion icon and putting the brand in the spotlight.
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"Much to our amazement, the first we knew of Lady Diana Spencer wearing the sweater was when we saw her on the front page of one of the Sunday newspapers," said Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne. "Her influence was impactful almost immediately thereafter, leading to a surge in sales and public awareness of our small label, for which we will be forever grateful."
A few months later, Buckingham Palace sent a letter to Muir and Osborne on behalf of Princess Diana asking for a new sweater as she had torn the original. She sent in the original, and Muir and Osborne soon sent back a new sweater to the palace. She was spotted wearing the new sweater during a polo match at Windsor in June 1983. By 1994, they stopped producing the sweater but reissued it with the American brand Rowing Blazers in 2020, the same year a replica sweater was worn by Emma Corrin as the princess in Netflix's The Crown.
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Fast forward to March 2023, when Muir and Osborne made an incredible discovery. They told Sotheby's, "This past March, as we were rummaging through the attic searching for an old pattern, we spotted a small box. Inside, tucked away beside a cotton bedspread was Diana’s original red sheep sweater from 1981. Now, almost four decades later, this one-of-a-kind sheep sweater is ready to make its way into the hands of a fortunate collector.”
This iconic black sheep sweater, worn and beloved by Princess Diana, now goes to auction at Sotheby's as part of their inaugural Fashion Icons Sale in September, with online bidding open from 31 August through 14 September. It carries an estimate of $50,000-70,000 (around £40,000-55,000). Sotheby’s holds the record for the most valuable Princess Diana dress ever sold, a Victor Edelstein-designed gown in purple velvet that the princess wore for her official portrait in 1991, which achieved $604,800 (£478,400) in January 2023.
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The sweater is one of the Princess' most memorable fashion moments, especially since the black sheep seems to symbolise her future as an outsider in the British royal family. Its historical significance was confirmed when a 1985 replica became part of the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
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"From her early years as a shy and reserved royal to her later years as a confident and independent woman, Princess Diana’s fashion choices broke the mould by reflecting the changing social climate and embracing evolving perceptions of femininity," said Cynthia Houlton, Sotheby's Global Head of Fashion and Accessories. "By combining high-end designer pieces with more attainable everyday apparel, Diana’s style led to a wave of imitation and admiration – which remains steadfast to this day – leaving an indelible mark on the fashion world and solidifying the Princess as an icon in fashion history."
