The dress in which Princess Diana famously danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985 remained unsold at an auction taking place in London yesterday. The dress, a Victor Edelstein velvet midnight blue gown, was offered at a “Passion for Fashion” auction from Kerry Taylor Auctions. 

Participants to the auction had to dish out between £250,000 and £300,000 to take the dress home – but no one dared to match the price tag.

The dress had already been bought at auction in 2013 for £200,000 by a “romantic gentleman who wanted basically to cheer up his wife.”

However, the couple have now decided to sell the beautiful gown after it was kept out of sight in a wardrobe for years. 

The auctioneer added that the couple wanted to sell back the dress to see it in the public domain.

While the stunning gown was snubbed by bidders, two other pieces of clothing belonging to the late Princess of Wales were sold at prices higher than estimated.

Another blue, velvet gown by Katherine Cusack was sold at £48,000 – despite its initial price tag ranging between £20,000 and £30,000.

But bidders went to war over another dress worn by Princess Diana in 1995 while visiting the Light Dragoon Guards in Germany.

The navy Catherine Walker coat dress up for auction came at an estimated value between £4,000 and £6,000, but it was sold for a whopping £28,000.

Several pieces of clothing owned by Princess Diana have gone up for auction after her death. 

But the Princess of Wales herself donated many dresses to raise money when she was still alive.

On June 25 1997, Christie’s in New York famously auctioned off 79 dresses donated by Diana – including the one that was not bought yesterday.

The proceedings were donated to the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and AIDS Cancer Trust – two of the 119 patronages Diana had then.

On that night, the Victor Edelstein gown was sold for £168,501 ($222,500), shattering Christie’s previous price record of $145,000. 

Throughout the night, the auction raised a total of £4.33 ($5.7m) for charities, of which £2.43 ($3.2m) came from the gowns alone.

Princess Diana spoke to her then-chef of her happiness and incredulity the day after the auction.

Darren McGrady recalled, speaking to the CNN: “The princess came into the kitchen. 

“She was just wearing a white towel and robe.

“She’d just come out of the shower.

“Her hair was ruffled, and she just looked stunningly beautiful naturally.

“Pointing to a piece of paper, she said, ‘Darren, look at how much money I made for charity just by selling a few of my old dresses’.”       

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