The Journey of Princess Diana's 'John Travolta' Dress

US Federal Government - Public Domain

Aside from her wedding dress, few dresses from Diana, Princess of Wales, are as iconic as Victor Edelstein's ink blue silk velvet dinner dress. Inspired by Edwardian dinner dresses, the lightly boned bodice velvet dress is intricately draped with a bow at the waist and a slight bustle at the back with stiffened off-the-shoulder straps. The designer originally made the dress in burgundy, but Diana requested a change to midnight blue. Worn during a 1985 State dinner at the White House, where she famously danced with John Travolta. Accessorized with a sapphire and pearl choker and long satin gloves, it has been dubbed the 'John Travolta dress' ever since.

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Diana wore the dress on at least five major occasions after that, including a State dinner in Germany in December 1987, the premiere of Wall Street in April 1988, and the Royal Opera House in 1991. Inspired by her son Prince William, the Travolta was one of seventy-nine dresses included in the Christie's DRESSES from the Collection of Diana, Princess of Wales auction in New York City on June 25, 1997. The catalogue included a photo by Lord Snowdon of her wearing the dress and her sapphire and pearl choker.

The Travolta dress, lot #79, sold for $222,500 (before the 15% Christie's surcharge), with the highest bid at the auction. At the time it was also one of the most expensive dresses ever sold at auction and the highest bid for an auctioned item of clothing. That record was previously held by John Travolta's famous white suit costume from Saturday Night Fever. Today it is held by Marilyn Monroe's iconic, 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President' dress she wore to serenade John F. Kennedy, at a 1962 Democratic fundraiser. Monroe's dress was bought by Ripley's Believe it or Not! in 2016, for $4.8 million. Diana's dress, for the most part, has avoided that kitschy fate.

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The auction, catalogue sales and special events raised approximately $5.7 million. The seventy-nine dresses sold for $3,258,750. Proceeds from the auction were directed towards charities personally chosen by Diana. These charities were AIDS Crisis Trust and The Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund, AIDS Care Centre, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, The Harvard AIDS Institute and The Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Centre of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Fourteen of the dresses, including the Travolta dress, were purchased by an anonymous bidder, who was later identified as Maureen Rorech (later Maureen Rorech Dunkle). She purchased the dresses over the phone, as an investment; the largest collection for a single bidder. Because of the amount of dresses, Ms. Rorech had to charter a private jet to transport her collection from New York to Tampa, storing them in a vault.

After Diana's death, Ms. Rorech, set up the People's Princess Charitable Foundation, creating a global travelling exhibit called Dresses for Humanity, eventually raising more than $1.5 million for AIDS, cancer and children's charities. The exhibit toured the world in a variety of venues, including major museums and some less than glamorous locations. I have seen the collection of these dresses twice - when it originally came to Toronto in 1998 and at an exhibit at the Design Exchange, prior to its controversial sale at Waddington's Auction House in 2011. In March 2013, it was sold for the third time, selling for $311,000. It was purchased by an anonymous bidder as a gift for his wife.

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It was included in the Diana: Her Fashion Story exhibit at Kensington Palace from February 2017-February 2019. In December 2019, Kerry Taylor Auctions included the dress as part of its Passion for Fashion sale. The dress was expected to sell for $450,000 but did not receive its reserve bidding price. It was eventually bought, post auction, for $290,000, by Historic Royal Palaces to join the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection. Thus returning, after 22 years, to its original home at Kensington Palace.

© Marilyn Braun 2020

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.

Royal Baby Facts

In honor of the upcoming birth of William and Catherine's first child, some British royal baby facts:

• When William and Catherine's baby is born, he/she will be the first royal baby to bear and use the style and title HRH Prince/Princess since Princess Eugenie's birth in 1990.

• In the unlikely event William and Catherine's baby is born in a royal palace, he/she will be the first royal baby since 1964 to do so. The last baby to be born in a royal palace was Lady Sarah Chatto, daughter of Princess Margaret, who was born at Kensington Palace on May 1, 1964. Prior to her birth Prince Edward was born at Buckingham Palace on March 10, 1964.

• A royal baby boom occurred in 1964 when four royal ladies were pregnant at the same time. Princess Alexandra was pregnant with her son James Ogilvy, the Queen with Prince Edward, the Duchess of Kent with Lady Helen Taylor and Princess Margaret with Lady Sarah Chatto.

• Princess Anne's son, Peter Phillips, was the first grandchild of a sovereign to be born a commoner in more than 500 years. He and his sister, Zara, are the Queen's only untitled grandchildren.

• Peter Phillips is the first grandson of a British sovereign to be born in hospital.

• Prince William is the first direct heir to the throne to be born in hospital

• After attending the birth of his first child, Peter in 1977, Mark Phillips remarked: "It is not every ones cup of tea". After the birth of his daughter Zara in 1981 he commented: "Yes, I was present at the birth but I wouldn't recommend it to other fathers."

• Contrary to some reports, should Prince William attend the birth of his child, he will not be the first royal father to do so. Other fathers who have attended the birth of their children include Prince Albert, (Consort of Queen Victoria), Prince Albert Edward attended the birth of his first son Prince Albert Victor, Prince George, Duke of Kent attended the birth of his son Prince Edward (the present Duke), as well as Mark Philips, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles and Prince Edward.

• Amongst the baby gifts Charles and Diana received for Prince William was a book of nursery rhymes, containing fourteen well-known characters, entirely in lace. The book was made by a team of lace makers at Beer in Devon and took 10,000 man-hours to create.  

• Queen Victoria was insistent on being present at the births of her grandchildren

• Queen Victoria disliked and disapproved of breastfeeding. When she discovered her daughter Princess Alice did so, she had one of the cows at the Royal Dairy named 'Alice'.

• In 1948, one of the cakes for Prince Charles' christening was made by the students of the National Bakery School. It weighed 130lbs and was 36 inches high.

• Lord Nicholas Windsor, third child of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, was the first royal baby to be born in hospital. He was born at University College Hospital on July 25, 1970.

• Princess Beatrice's date of birth 8/8/88 is considered to be extremely lucky in the Chinese calendar.

• Since the 1970s, it has become the norm for royal babies to be born in hospital. Previous royal babies have been born in more illustrious surroundings. To name a few: Balmoral Castle, the Sandringham Estate, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Marlborough House, Kensington Palace, Clarence House and St. James's Palace. 

• King Olav of Norway was born on the Sandringham estate

• Princess Eugenie of York, daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was the first royal baby to have a public christening. This occurred during morning service at St. Mary Magdalene, Sandringham, in December 1990.

• Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was born on a dining room table

• Princess Alexandra, first cousin of the Queen was born on Christmas day in 1936, the year of the abdication crisis. Her grandmother Queen Mary remarked that her birth was 'The nicest thing to have happened this year.'

• Princess Alexandra's son, James Ogilvy was born on February 29th, 1964.

• In 1960, Prince Andrew was the first royal baby born to a reigning British sovereign since Queen Victoria gave birth to Princess Beatrice in 1857.

• In 1930, Princess Margaret was the first royal baby - so close in the line of succession - to be born in Scotland since Charles I in 1600. At the time of her birth she was 4th in line to the throne. Between Charles I and Princess Margaret other royal babies born in Scotland include Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain in 1887 and her brother Prince Maurice in 1891, both born at Balmoral Castle. However they were not as close in line as Princess Margaret!

• When Princess Margaret was born in 1930, her birth registration was delayed so that her birth certificate would not be numbered 13.

• When Baby Cambridge is born, it will mark the second time in history where 3 direct heirs to the throne have been born while the sovereign is alive. The first time occurred during the reign of Queen Victoria when her son, The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and grandson, the Duke of York (later King George V) marked the birth of the future King Edward VIII in 1894.

© Marilyn Braun 2013



Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.

The Royal Report for Sunday November 27, 2011 - Royal Focus - Kensington Palace

Tune in to the next episode of The Royal Report on Sunday November 27, 2011 at 9:00PM EST (North America)

The topic will be: It's been called the 'royal aunt heap', it was the birthplace of Queen Victoria and Queen Mary. It was notably the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales and Princess Margaret. It was once the favored home of kings and queens. In 2013 it will become the home of William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. On this episode, a focus on the history of Kensington Palace.

© Marilyn Braun 2011

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.