The black sheep of the eighties, the romantic heroine of the nineties, and the heir to the civil rights struggle of the 2000s. Lady Diana, Kate Winslet and Michelle Obama often wore clothes that sent messages, silent but often important statements. Three of their iconic works, dating from 1981, 1997 and 2010, are being auctioned at Sotheby’s New York, along with other clothing and significant items from Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker and the great Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall. However, despite being surrounded by other stars, three examples – Lady Di, Kate and Michelle – dominate the auction, which closes on Thursday. And this is because each of the garments originally wanted to have a symbolic meaning, which today makes them real historical testimonies.
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BOSSES
There are two items from Lady Diana, black and white evening dress and sweater, and it is the latter that has been occupying the pages of newspapers and television shows for several days now. This is the famous red and white sweater, strewn with white sheep and one black sheep right in the center. The auction house represents Kate Winslet the dress she wore to the Oscars, when she won the statuette for best interpretation of the role of Rose, a heroine with Shakespearean overtones who in Titanic personified love thwarted by class conflict. Michelle Obama up for auction vintage silk, crinoline, organza and tulle dress from the civil rights era. At the moment, bids for Lady Diana’s sweater are clearly higher, the price of which has exceeded 80 thousand dollars, which is considered the maximum price it can reach, and now exceeds 120 thousand. Kate’s dress is clearly stretched. a custom creation by Alexander McQueen and is inspired by the Edwardian era as depicted in the film Titanic.
FORMER FIRST LADY
For the first lady, descended from slaves, who appeared on television with her family at a party celebrating a country that had just emerged from a terrible economic crisis, the dress was immediately interpreted as a declaration of principles: it was not only a product of the most difficult years of the civil rights struggle , but it was also “used,” as the conservative tabloid New York Post scornfully wrote, that is, what we today elegantly define as “vintage.” Michelle, who has always tried to maintain a youthful but understated style in the White House, confirmed her origins and showed how luxury and sobriety can be combined. Fascinating story about her dress at auction, but less exciting than the story surrounding Lady Diana’s sweater. a sweater that biographers of the Princess of Wales have defined as “the end of innocence”.. Worn for the first time in 1981, shortly after the wedding, it already seemed to indicate that the very young kindergarten teacher felt like a fish caught in the stifling, traditionalist and conservative environment of the royal family. The sweater was bought by Diana herself a small boutique called Warm & Wonderful that suddenly became very famous. A few months later, the princess sent it back because she had torn it in the corner and wanted the boutique to repair it or sell her another one. The boutique preferred to send her a new one, and Diana wore it in public.
But the damaged original was stuffed into a box and stored in the basement of the boutique, from where it was recently put up for auction. Sotheby’s is accompanying it with two letters from Lady Diana’s secretary asking for help and gratitude, as well as numerous proofs of the item’s authenticity. Sotheby’s Vice President Frank Everett himself suggests that the sweater may be of interest to collectors or even to a museum, for its value as evidence of a particular moment in the history of the British royal house. Netflix helped cement its meaning in season five of The Crown when actress Elizabeth Debicki, who plays the hapless Lady Di, wears it on one of her lonely evenings early in her marriage, perhaps already regretting it. I said yes.
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