In early November 1985, Charles, Prince of Wales, along with his wife Diana travelled to the United States for a four-day visit. The princess brought a dark blue evening dress carefully packed in her luggage, which would end up making a very special appearance during the journey.
The strapless velvet dress was tailored by Victor Edelstein, a London designer whom Diana frequented at the time. Originally in burgundy red, Diana asked him to tailor a copy for her in her favourite colour, midnight blue. At the final fitting in Kensington Palace, Prince Charles was also very pleased with the result and said the dress could be "wonderfully combined with jewels," as Edelstein recalls.
On the first evening of the state visit, the royal couple were invited to a White House Gala Dinner with then-President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy as hosts. The rest of the crowd was made up of icons from politics, the business world and Hollywood, including Clint Eastwood and John Travolta.
As Travolta later confessed in an interview, he was very surprised that he had been invited to the event. The reason, though, was a very special one: during the evening, the First Lady took him aside and asked him to fulfill the Princess of Wales's great wish: to dance with her, as she was a big fan of him and his dance skills, which he had displayed in films like Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978).
In fact, Diana was an accomplished dancer who had been passionate about ballet since her youth. Her impressive 1.78 m height, however, ultimately stood in her way of following a career as a ballerina. In the East Room of the White House she danced with Travolta to the Bee Gee’s song ‘You Should Be Dancing’ from Saturday Night Fever. The resulting photos became the most famous from the entire trip.
The 10-minute dance was a huge boost for Diana's fame in the United States, and John Travolta, whose career had stalled at the time, benefited professionally.
Later, Diana wore the dress on official occasions, including state visits to Bonn and Vienna. She also wore the dress in what would be her last official portrait, taken in 1997 by the court photographer and brother-in-law of the Queen, the Earl of Snowdon. She later had it sold in a charity auction at Christie’s, and two months later, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car accident in Paris.
Diana's evening gown will be joined by many other iconic items at the Passion for Fashion sale by Kerry Taylor Auctions on 9 December in London. The estimated price is for the dress is £250,000-350,000, a ball gown that’s still fit for a princess.
