Princess Diana’s ‘black sheep’ sweater to be auctioned

A sweater worn by the late British Princess Diana, which features a black sheep among other white sheep, will be auctioned later this season with an estimated price of up to $80,000. Designed by knitwear brand Warm & Wonderful, the sweater, which will headline Sotheby’s Fashion Icons online sale from Aug. 31 to Sept. 14, was rediscovered in an attic earlier this year by one of the brand’s founders.

Diana first wore the red sweater, which depicts a lone black sheep among rows of white sheep, to watch then-Prince Charles play a polo match in June 1981, a month before the pair were to be wed, sparking speculation about its potential. meaning.

After it was damaged on the wrist, the Princess’s private secretary, Oliver Everett, wrote to Warm & Wonderful co-founder Joanna Osborne asking if the garment could be repaired, and the sweater was sent back. A few months later, Diana received a replacement, with which she was photographed in 1983.

Osborne found the original in a box in his attic in March. “If you’re Princess Diana, you certainly have access to many pieces of clothing that you can choose to wear,” Cynthia Houlton, Sotheby’s global head of fashion, told Reuters at a press preview in London on Monday. “And the fact that she wanted a replacement and then again two years later wore it… I think speaks volumes about how much that sweater meant to her.”

The sweater, which is being sold with the two letters from Everett to Osborne, has an estimated price of between $50,000 and $80,000.