A REGULAR feature of the 1990s, celebrity auctions tend to fall into two categories. The famous person has recently died (Pamela Harriman, Jacqueline Onassis, Rudolf Nureyev or the Duchess of Windsor) or else decided to clear out a few cupboards. The list of the latter over the past few years includes Elton John, Britt Ekland, Barbra Streisand and now regular face on the film premiere circuit - Diana, Princess of Wales.
Only in one respect does she differ from the majority of other celebrities; the princess does not stand to gain financially from her forthcoming auction.
Next month in New York, she is selling 80 cocktail and evening dresses for which she can no longer find a use or space in her wardrobes. Disposing of old clothes is a common phenomenon, of course, with charity shops being the most usual beneficiary. So two British charities, the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and the Aids Crisis Trust, as well as similar organisations in the United States, stand to make a considerable amount of money from this sale.
Quite how much money remains open to speculation since none of the dresses carries a reserve. "It's impossible to quantify," said a spokeswoman for Christie's, which is conducting the auction, "because this is such a unique sale. There's never been anything like it."
Already, interest in the world's most famous castoffs has been so great that the total sum realised could possibly run into millions of pounds. Christie's is holding the sale on a nonprofit basis and so all the money will go directly to the charities. The sale catalogue containing photographs by Lord Snowdon of the princess modelling some items - and managing to look both haughty and uncomfortable in them all - retails for £35 and according to the auction house, demand for copies has left the company telephones "red hot".
A limited edition of 250 leather bound catalogues, signed by the princess, is being offered for £1,250 each, while there are also 5,250 copies with canvas covers available at £160 apiece. By the middle of last week, more than $750,000 had been raised from catalogue sales, with some 6,000 copies sold by the Christie's office setting a new record for the company. At the front of the catalogue a handwritten note from Princess Diana is reproduced: "The inspiration for this wonderful sale comes from just one person ... our son William. Diana."
Interest in seeing the clothes themselves looks likely to be just as intense. The earliest outfit dates back to 1981 and the most recent was made last year, while the majority belong to the period when Diana was still married to the Prince of Wales and attending official engagements in Britain and abroad. Prior to organising shipment to New York for the auction on June 25th, Christie's will be showing all the garments in London from June 3rd to 6th, with admission strictly by catalogue.
Just over 50 per cent of the total, 42 of the dresses, are by the princess's favourite designer, Catherine Walker. These include a long strapless sheath dress and matching jacket in ivory silk crepe embroidered with false pearls and sequins, first worn in Hong Kong during a tour of the Far East, and a black halter neck evening dress trimmed with black bugle beads worn for a dinner at Versailles.
The other lots provide a roll call of British fashion during the past 15 years, featuring names such as Victor Edelstein, Hartnell, Zandra Rhodes, Bruce Oldfield, Bellville Sassoon and the Emanuels. Aside from some fairly horrific early 1980s puffball ensembles, they often share certain features: a fitted bodice, sleeves to the elbow and lightly pleated skirts which emphasise Diana's height and slim figure. An evening dress in ink blue silk velvet by Victor Edelstein, for example, originally worn at a dinner in the White House in 1985, drapes from a bow beneath the waist, and the same designer's 1988 oyster duchess satin strapless dress has a matching bolero embroidered in a floral design of pink false pearls, glass beads and pink and white sequins.
Except for a black pleated chiffon dress by Christina Stamboulian, all the clothes were made specifically for the princess. For this reason, and the high price each garment is expected to fetch, the dresses are unlikely ever to be worn by their new owners. Their fate, rather like that of the princess herself, would seem to be that they will become objects of almost fetishistic fascination.