Here’s how to buy Princess Diana’s “black sheep” sweater

Princess Diana has left behind a huge style legacy and soon aficionados will be able to bid on one of her most famous looks.

The celebrated ‘black sheep’ sweater first worn by Lady Diana Spencer at a polo match in 1981 when she was betrothed to the current King Charles III will be the main auction of Sotheby’s Fashion Icons auction in New York between August 31 and September 14. York and online.

The original sweater, which is expected to fetch $50,000 to $80,000 when it goes on sale for the first time ever, will be on display at the auction house starting Sept. 7, the start of New York Fashion Week, according to Sotheby’s.

“This exceptional garment, carefully preserved, carries the whisper of Princess Diana’s grace, charm and her keen eye for fashion,” said Cynthia Houlton, Sotheby’s global head of fashion and accessories, in a press release Monday.

“It is an honor to offer this historic sweater in our inaugural fashion icon auction, putting it in dialogue with other memorable and culturally significant garments,” she added.

Artists Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne and their knit label Warm & Wonderful created the bright red wool crew neck knit in 1979, which is decorated with rows of white sheep and a black sheep on the front.

Diana’s look went viral and popularized the small clothing company. “To our great surprise, we first knew Lady Diana Spencer was wearing the sweater when we saw her on the front page of one of the Sunday papers,” Muir and Osborne said in the press release.

“Her influence was influential almost immediately afterward, leading to a surge in sales and public awareness of our small label, for which we will be eternally grateful,” they added.

A few weeks after Diana’s first outing with the garment, Muir and Osborne received a letter from Buckingham Palace saying that Diana had damaged her beloved sheepskin sweater (a small tear in one of the cuffs is visible in images from the auction house) and, according to Sotheby’s, polite request repair or replacement.

The media has long speculated about Diana’s design choice. (Sotheby’s)

The palace returned the sweater to the designers, who knitted an entirely new sweater for Diana. The palace later sent a letter of thanks to the designers.

Diana was pictured wearing the new jersey at another polo match in 1982, according to the Warm & Wonderful website. In the photo, the lone black sheep appears on a higher row of white sheep on the new jersey than on the original.

The original sweater was rediscovered in March this year by Muir and Osborne in their attic, according to Sotheby’s. It was tucked away in a small box next to a cotton throw.

The media has long speculated about possible hidden meanings in Diana’s clothing choices, and in this case, the release says the sweater sparked speculation about whether the princess felt a connection to the lonely black sheep because of her complex relationship with the royal family. . Others simply interpret it as a celebration of the British countryside and agricultural history.

A version of the sweater is on display in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and while Warm & Wonderful stopped producing the lone black sheep style in 1994, it resumed making copies of the design in 2020, which are still available to pre-order online for £250 ($295).

A replica was also made for actor Emma Corrin, who played Diana in the fourth season of ‘The Crown’, the popular Netflix drama about the British royal family.