Royal Book Challenge: My Decade With Diana by Maureen Rorech

5/500

My Decade with Diana: The Perpetual Power of the People's Princess by Maureen Rorech Dunkel
Published 2007
166 pages

I bought this book when I visited the collection of Diana's dresses at the Design Exchange in Toronto. Although this book is interesting, it's overpriced My rationale for purchasing it was that 100% of the proceeds from the sale would go to 'charities worldwide'.

In 1997 Maureen Rorech bought 13 of Diana's dresses from the Christie's auction for close to $700,000. She had bought the largest collection of dresses sold at the auction - by phone, without the catalogue. It's interesting to read about why she purchased the collection and what appealed to her about the individual dresses. Admitting she was unfamiliar with Diana's life, she purchased them as a business investment, little suspecting that it over the next 10 years would become much more than that. After Diana's death, Ms Rorech decided to take her collection and create a travelling exhibit, Dresses for Humanity, to raise money for causes that had been supported by Diana in her lifetime.

When it comes to travelling exhibits, people tend to look at it from the vantage point of a visitor, not necessarily thinking of the work involved in preparing it. This book presents the complicated process of putting together the exhibit and the logistics (and stresses) of doing so while maintaining the integrity of the dresses and of Diana's memory.

© Marilyn Braun 2012

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