In June 1997, Princess Diana attended the British National Ballet’s gala performance of Swan Lake. Little did anyone know at the time that it would be one of her last public appearances.
Diana looked glamorous in a sparkling Jacques Azagury minidress and Jimmy Choo pumps for the occasion, but the star of her outfit was a custom-made South Sea pearl necklace by Garrard. The jeweller created the necklace (and a matching set of earrings, which weren’t finished at the time) based on designs by Princess Diana herself. After she wore the necklace, it was returned to Garrard to complete the earrings – but sadly they were not finished before her tragic death.
Now known as the ‘Swan Lake Suite’, the necklace and earrings will be auctioned by Gurernsey’s next month. “Diana was a girl when she was a princess,” Guernsey’s president Arlan Ettinger told Women’s Wear Daily. “She wore borrowed material, then she blossomed into a tower of strength and became very much her own, so designing a necklace was a statement for her.”
The piece features 178 diamonds and five South Sea pearls, and the earrings have two matching cultured pearls and six diamonds. The auction house said: “It is widely believed that these may be the only substantial jewels worn by Diana that will ever be sold.
The current owner of the set is Mark Ginzburg, a Ukrainian property developer. The jewels, he told the New York Times, “were never something to be worn. They were really something to be iconic and treasured”.
