princess diana dresses

Princess Diana's Wedding Dress Heads To Kansas City In March

The Princess Diana exhibition is moving through the Midwest. The exhibit is currently at the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan and heads next to Kansas City, Missouri where it opens March 4 in the city's Union Station. The exhibition runs through June 12 meaning that it will be in place during the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April. MLive.com reports that more than 50,000 tickets have been sold in Grand Rapids to see the exhibition of 150 items related to the life of Princess Diana that includes the famous wedding dress.

Kansas City's Union Station is a historic railroad station that was renovated into a non-profit center. Built in 1914, it was a working train station for years but was closed in the 1980s. It was neglected for years until its renovation in the late 1990s. Now it is a community center filled with shops and restaurants as well as its own Amtrak stop.It houses the permanent collections and archives for Union Station Kansas City, Inc./Kansas City Museum. Tickets for the Diana exhibit are $23.50 and special events for the celebration will include mother/daughter teas and ladies night Fridays.

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Where to See Princess Diana's Dresses

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

With a royal engagement announced and Princess Diana's ring on Kate Middleton's finger, many are feeling nostalgic about the time when young Diana first came into the public eye. There are several places where you can see Diana's dresses. A special exhibition of ten dresses that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales is on display at the Fashion Museum in Bath, England from now until January 9, 2011. The dresses were lent to the museum by their owner, Mrs Suzanne King and span the 16 years that Diana was in the spotlight as a style icon. The exhibit includes dresses worn during the Royal tours of Canada and New Zealand in the early 1980s, evening dresses by couturier Catherine Walker from around 1990, and little black cocktail dresses by designers such as Versace from the mid-1990s.

Since her tragic early death, Princess Diana's dresses have been in exhibits around the world and some have sold for quite a bit of money. Earlier this year the black taffeta gown that she wore on her first official appearance after her engagement to Prince Charles sold for £192,000 at auction. That dress was bought by the Fundacion Museo De La Moda in Chile. Jorge Yarur, the founder of the museum, has said that when he dies he plans to have this dress and the other Diana dresses he owns donated to Kensington Palace, where she lived from the time of her wedding in 1981 until her death in 1997.

Princess Diana's wedding dress is currently in Michigan at the Grand Rapids Art Museum where it is the star of an exhibit titled "Diana -- A Celebration," which opened earlier this month and runs through February 16, 2011. The exhibit of more than 150 personal objects includes the ivory silk taffeta and lace wedding dress, with a fitted, boned bodice and curved neckline. Admission to the exhibit is $20.

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Princess Diana's Clothing Sells Above Estimates

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Auctions

Proving the enduring legacy of Princess Diana, the black taffeta gown that she wore on her first official appearance after her engagement to Prince Charles sold recently for a price far above the estimate. The dress was estimated at 30-50,000 pounds but sold for 192,000 pounds in an auction today, June 8 by Kerry Taylor Auctions at La Galleria in London. The gown was designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the same designers who created Diana's wedding. The black dress with a sequined flounce at the bodice cemented Diana's status as more than just "shy Di" but a woman worth watching.

The dress was bought by fashion museum the Fundacion Museo De La Moda in Chile. Jorge Yarur, the founder of the museum, has said that when he dies he plans to have this dress and the other Diana dresses he owns donated to Kensington Palace, where she lived from the time of her wedding in 1981 until her death in 1997. Other items in the lots included the chiffon blouse worn by the Princess when she appeared in Vogue shortly after the announcement of her engagement. That went to the Newbridge Silverware Museum in Ireland for 26,400 pounds against an estimate of 10,000-15,000 pounds. The calico toile prototype for the Royal Wedding gown, brought in 20,400 pounds against an estimate of 8,000 and 12,000 pounds.

Tags: kerry taylor auctions, princess diana, princess diana auction, princess diana dresses, Princess Diana exhibits

A Fight Over Princess Diana's Dresses

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Controversy and drama continue to surround Princess Diana, even so many years after her death, as a fight has broken out over ownership of a collection of her beautiful and historical dresses.

Maureen Rorech Dunkel bought 13 of Princess Diana's dresses for $700,000 just a few weeks before her unexpected death back in 1997, and now the fate of 5 of those dresses is in dispute. It's all very tangled and twisted but apparently Dunkel had some financial difficulties and took out a series of loans -- to the tune of $1.5 million -- from HRH Ventures LLC and used the dress collection as security. Dunkel has since defaulted on payment and recently filed for bankruptcy, but Patricia C. Sullivan (manager for HRH Ventures) is seeking ownership of 5 of the 13 dresses claiming Dunkel doesn't have the resources to properly care for and maintain such irreplaceable valuables. Among the 5 is a blue velvet dress valued at over $1 million that the Princess wore to a White House dinner and was photographed in dancing with John Travolta. Dunkel, who is also known for founding The People's Princess Charitable Foundation, is claiming the loans aren't supposed to mature until 2012.

As of right now all the dresses are on loan to Kensington Palace in London.

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