The low-cut black taffeta dress that transformed Lady Diana Spencer from a demure girl to fashion icon Princess Di has fetched 192,000 pounds at an auction. She wore it at her first public engagement with the Prince of Wales in 1981.

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Estimated by Kerry Taylor Auctions to fetch 50,000 pounds, it saw heavy bidding before the hammer came down in favour of Fundacion Museo de la Moda, a Chilean museum.

The dress provoked some outrage at that time for its deep neckline. When Diana bent forward as she emerged out of her car at the Royal Opera House, the photographers went into a frenzy, making Prince Charles to remark: "Have all the fashion writers finished?"