LONDON: Glittering gowns, elegant suits and bold mini-dresses worn by the late Princess Diana will go on show from Friday on the 20th anniversary of her death in new exhibition charting her style reign.
“Diana: Her Fashion Story,” hosted in her London residence Kensington Palace, follows her evolution from the demure outfits of her first public appearances to the glamorous gowns of her later life.
The show charts how she not only rewrote the rules of royal dressing with a more informal style but also expressed herself through her fashion choices, before her 1997 death in a car crash in Paris.
“Each of the dresses is like a mini biography... They’re not just what she wore but they tell stories,” Libby Thompson, a curator, told AFP.
Curator Eleri Lynn said: “We see her growing in confidence throughout her life, increasingly taking control of how she was represented.”
Some of the highlights include the discreet pale pink Emanuel blouse she wore for her engagement portrait in 1981 and the dazzling ink blue Victor Edelstein velvet dress she wore when she danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985.
So iconic is the “Travolta” dress that it sold for £250,000 ($310,000) at auction three years ago.
Another gown, a silk velvet dress she wore for private events at Buckingham Palace during the 1980s, is sure to charm many visitors.
Tiny fingerprints believed to belong to one of her sons — Prince William and Prince Harry — have been found on the material, preserved through the last 30 years.
The show will also highlight how throughout her years as one of the world’s most photographed women, Diana revealed herself to be a diplomatic dresser.
The “Gold Falcon Gown” is a perfect example.
She wore the Catherine Walker cream silk dress embroidered with gold falcons — the national bird of Saudi Arabia — during a visit to the country in 1986.
But it was by breaking the codes of royal dressing and embracing a more practical style that Diana transitioned from the Princess of Wales into the “People’s Princess” — the term used by then prime minister Tony Blair after her death.
She developed a more informal “working wardrobe” of chic Catherine Walker suits and tailored shift dresses to champion the causes she cared about.
These outfits, designed to convey approachability, she wore on charitable outings including meeting people with HIV and visiting children in hospital.
Following her separation from Prince Charles in 1992, Diana threw the rulebook away again by adopting a bolder look featuring many figure-hugging mini dresses.
The cream silk mini she wore while attending a charity auction of her more memorable dresses in 1997 is testament to that.
Held in Kensington Palace, her residence for 15 years, the exhibition will extend to the gardens where her sons have said they will add a statue of her to mark the anniversary of her passing.
Princess Diana’s iconic dresses on show for anniversary
Princess Diana’s iconic dresses on show for anniversary
Sotheby’s to bring coveted Rembrandt lion drawing to Diriyah
DUBAI: Later this month, Sotheby’s will bring to Saudi Arabia what it describes as the most important Rembrandt drawing to appear at auction in 50 years. Estimated at $15–20 million, “Young Lion Resting” comes to market from The Leiden Collection, one of the world’s most important private collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art.
The drawing will be on public view at Diriyah’s Bujairi Terrace from Jan. 24 to 25, alongside the full contents of “Origins II” — Sotheby’s forthcoming second auction in Saudi Arabia — ahead of its offering at Sotheby’s New York on Feb. 4, 2026. The entire proceeds from the sale will benefit Panthera, the world’s leading organization dedicated to the conservation of wild cats. The work is being sold by The Leiden Collection in partnership with its co-owner, philanthropist Jon Ayers, the chairman of the board of Panthera.
Established in 2006, Panthera was founded by the late wildlife biologist Dr. Alan Rabinowitz and Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan. The organization is actively engaged in the Middle East, where it is spearheading the reintroduction of the critically endangered Arabian leopard to AlUla, in partnership with the Royal Commission for AlUla.
“Young Lion Resting” is one of only six known Rembrandt drawings of lions and the only example remaining in private hands. Executed when Rembrandt was in his early to mid-thirties, the work captures the animal’s power and restless energy with striking immediacy, suggesting it was drawn from life. Long before Rembrandt sketched a lion in 17th-century Europe, lions roamed northwest Arabia, their presence still echoed in AlUla’s ancient rock carvings and the Lion Tombs of Dadan.
For Dr. Kaplan, the drawing holds personal significance as his first Rembrandt acquisition. From 2017 to 2024, he served as chairman of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage, of which Saudi Arabia is a founding member.
The Diriyah exhibition will also present, for the first time, the full range of works offered in “Origins II,” a 64-lot sale of modern and contemporary art, culminating in an open-air auction on Jan. 31 at 7.30 pm.
