Princess Diana's Gowns to go on display at Kensington Palace

Diana was known as 'the People's Princess', so it's fitting that two of Princess Diana's iconic dresses will now be displayed at Kensington Palace for the general public to see and enjoy.
The two gowns, which were sold as part of an auction on Tuesday, were bought by the Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that runs Diana's former residence.

It spent £78,000 on a pink sequined crepe dress designed by Catherine Walker that the stylish royal wore in a state visit to Brazil in 1991, and £50,400 on a black Bruce Oldfield velvet dress worn for an official portrait by Lord Snowdon and at the gala opening of Les Miserables in 1985.

The charity confirmed that the two gowns will remain in Britain and will be shown to the public in exhibitions as part of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection "conserving them for future generations and ensuring that visitors to Kensington Palace will be able to see these unique items for years to come".

A Historic Royal Palaces spokeswoman said, "The two dresses mark the evolution of the princess' style from the romanticism of the mid-1980s to the sleek and sophisticated silhouettes of the early 1990s", adding that the charity hoped at least one of the new dresses would go on display at the palace in an exhibition this summer.

The gowns were originally sold, along with a number of others, by the Princess herself following her divorce from Prince Charles. She auctioned them off to help raise money to charity, at the suggestion of her son Prince Williams.

On Tuesday, they went under the hammer again as ten of Diana's "most important and iconic" gowns were sold at Kerry Taylor auctions. In total, the collection fetched over £800,000.