Hi history lovers and welcome or welcome back to the channel, where I bring you new videos
every week on all aspects of the past.
Today on History Calling we’re looking at one of Princess Diana’s famous fashion moments,
the iconic Travolta dress, which she wore for the first time to an event at the White
House in 1985.
I’ll take you through the dress’s history, including its design and designer, how it
was altered to suit Diana’s tastes and how it got its name thanks to the intervention
of First Lady Nancy Reagan and the meeting of real and Hollywood royalty.
I’ll also tell you what happened to the gown after that night and the astronomical
sums it eventually sold for.
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On 9 November 1985, Prince Charles and his wife, the Princess of Wales, commonly called
Princess Diana though that wasn’t technically her title, arrived at the White House in Washington
DC.
It was the first day of their first joint royal tour of the United States and that afternoon
they met with President Ronald Reagan and his wife, First Lady Nancy Reagan and exchanged
gifts over coffee.
This was just a pre-curser to the main event of the day though, which was a dinner held
in the White House that evening in honour of the royal couple.
It was to be a star studded event, though with only 80 guests, it was also a small affair
by White House and royal standards.
As well as these two powerhouse couples, other attendees included singer Neil Diamond and
actors Tom Selleck, Clint Eastwood and John Travolta, who had apparently been invited
at Diana’s suggestion as she was a fan of his.
When Diana arrived back at the mansion that night and stepped out of the car, the waiting
press got their first proper look at the dress she had chosen for the evening.
Designed by British designer Victor Edelstein, it was an off the shoulder, full-length, midnight-blue
velvet gown, with a slightly v-shaped neckline and zipper up the back.
The cut was inspired by late Edwardian evening gowns, with ruching across the bodice and
skirt, a slight bustle, a large bow below the waist and a mermaid bottom which flared
out when the wearer twirled around.
Diana had opted to style it with opera-length navy velvet gloves (though she took these
off later in the night), her sapphire, diamond and pearl choker (the pendant in the middle
was actually a brooch originally and was a wedding gift from the Queen Mother), matching
earrings and a bracelet, the style of which I can’t quite make out from the photos.
It can’t be seen under her gloves, but I think she’s also wearing her famous sapphire
engagement ring, which now belongs to her daughter-in-law, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
If we look at these more modern pictures of the dress in very good lightning, the colour
and design details on it are easier to see.
Unfortunately I always think the footage and images of it from the 1980s aren’t good
enough quality for you to be able to appreciate all the ruching and the bow and the dress
can sometimes look black, rather than navy.
Edelstein had worked with the Princess before and has been credited with helping her move
away from the slightly girlish dresses, with lots of frills and ruffles, that she often
wore at the beginning of her marriage, to a more polished and sophisticated look, with
this dress a classic example of that change.
It was not designed specifically for the Princess however.
Instead it was a slightly altered version of a gown Edelstein had included in one of
his regular collections.
In fact he remarked in an interview with You magazine in 2017 that:
When I did design things for her I never felt I did them quite as well…
It’s odd that when you design especially for someone – and I’ve seen other designers
do the same thing – you try too hard and end up doing something that isn’t typical
of you and isn’t that good.
The original design had been in burgundy, however Diana asked for it to be remade for
her in navy, which Edelstein duly did.
He visited her at her home, Kensington Palace, to fit the dress, later recalling that:
At the last fitting for the Travolta dress – I fear it will always be called that – Diana
was so pleased with it that she said, “I must show this to my husband.”
Off she went and came back with the Prince of Wales.
It was very funny, like something out of a TV show.
He was obviously about to go out because he was covered with ribbons and decorations,
but he was very nice about the dress.
With the dress ready to go and having received two royal stamps of approval from both the
Prince and Princess, it was packed up for the American trip, where it would become one
of the most famous outfits the Princess ever wore.
The evening began with a series of introductions as Diana joined the welcome line with her
husband and hosts and the other guests filed past, shaking hands.
This was followed by dinner and speeches in the State Dining Room and if you’ve ever
wondered what a dinner at the White House which is fit for royalty might be like, just
take a look at the table settings and menu prepared for the Waleses that night.
With the formalities done, it was time for dancing in the Cross Hall and now we get to
the event which has given Diana’s dress its name.
Speaking in 2021, actor John Travolta explained how he ended up at the party and how the evening
played out.
He said:
I got a call from the White House to invite me to meet the British royal family with other
celebrities, so I went with a very humble attitude that I was an extra in a room of
very important people.
About 10 o’clock at night, Nancy Reagan tapped on my shoulder and said, ‘The princess,
her fantasy is to dance with you.
Would you dance with her tonight?
And I said, ‘Well, of course.
How does this work?’
And she said, ‘Well, at about midnight I’ll come and get you and then I’ll lead you
over to her and then you ask her to dance and my heart starts to race, you know, and
I tapped her on the shoulder and as she turns around and looks at me and she had the kind
of bashful dip she did [he means the way the Princess would dip her head sometimes] and
I said, ‘Would you care to dance with me?’
and she said, ‘Yes’, and I took her and the whole room cleared.
We danced for what felt like 15 minutes.
In other interviews over the years, Mr Travolta has also spoken of his nerves at dancing with
the Princess, explaining that he had no idea when he arrived that evening that she had
expressed an interest in dancing with him and that when Nancy Reagan initially told
him of her plan, he momentarily hesitated and said he couldn’t do it, to which she
replied ‘Yes you can’ and of course, he did, cause when the First Lady asks you to
do something, it’s not really a request.
They danced to a medley of songs from his movies, Saturday Night Fever and Grease (which
was extra appropriate as this event actually took place on a Saturday night) and he has
called the experience ‘a storybook moment’.
According to Travolta, ‘I was on cloud nine.
She has great rhythm.
We did spins and turns.
We did a kind of modern fox-trot and she followed me very well.
… Near the end I said, ‘Maybe some day we’ll get to do this in a less-watched situation’.
‘That would be great’, she replied.’
Sadly of course, we know that that was not to be.
At the end of what would be their only dance together, Travolta said, ‘We bowed when
it was over and you know, she was off, and I was off, and my carriage turned into a pumpkin.’
When the pictures of them together hit the press though, it was clear that this moment
was going to live forever.
The dress and the dance caused a sensation and although Diana danced with other famous
men that night, including no less than President Reagan himself, the dress was christened the
Travolta dress and has retained that name ever since.
That wasn’t the end of the gown’s story though.
In fact, Diana donned it many more times over the next 12 years, making it one of her most
worn formal ensembles.
She was spotted in it during visits to Austria and Germany in 1986 and 1987 respectively
and at the London premiere of the Michael Douglas film, Wall Street, in 1988.
She also wore it for an official portrait by Israel Zohar in 1990 and a photograph taken
in 1997 by Lord Snowden, who had been the husband of Princess Margaret.
That was the last time she was seen in it, for soon afterwards, at the suggestion of
her son, Prince William and in order to raise money for charity, she put the dress, along
with 78 others, up for sale in Christie’s auction house in New York (which was then
still located on Park Avenue, though it moved to the Rockefeller Centre shortly afterwards).
At that auction, on 25 June 1997, the Travolta dress, which was lot number 79, sold for $222,500.
In 2013 it sold again for £240,000 and was bought by a man who apparently just wanted
to cheer up his wife by purchasing this iconic gown for her.
Six years later though and supposedly because the couple wanted the public to be able to
see the dress, they put it up for sale again, but shockingly it failed to make its reserve
price of £200,000 and so did not sell at auction in December 2019.
Soon afterwards though, it was snapped up by Historic Royal Palaces (which is the charitable
organisation which takes care of royal residences in the UK) for £264,000 and taken back to
Diana’s former home at Kensington Palace.
In a statement, Eleri Lynn, a curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said:
We’re delighted to have acquired this iconic evening gown for the Royal Ceremonial Dress
Collection - a designated collection of national and international importance - over twenty
years since it first left Kensington Palace.
Not only is the ‘Travolta’ dress a fantastic example of couture tailoring designed to dazzle
on a state occasion, it represents a key moment in the story of twentieth century royal fashion.
The photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales dancing with John Travolta at the White House
wearing this midnight blue Victor Edelstein gown are known the world over, with the dress’s
twirling velvet skirt playing no small part in making this such a memorable image.
In February 2020 the dress was packed up and put into cold storage.
This was to ensure that any bugs that might have been in it or on it and which could have
damaged it or any other items in the collection, were killed off.
Unfortunately the Covid pandemic meant that it couldn’t be placed on display until the
late summer of that year, when it was finally unveiled in all its glory.
It is now on show in the Palace along with many other famous royal outfits.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at one of the most famous dresses of the 20th
century worn by perhaps its most famous woman.
Thank you for watching and let me know in the comments below what your favourite Diana
dress is.
If you’d like to learn more about iconic fashion, or legendary royals, try one of these
options next and until next time, keep learning.