Princess Diana's original black sheep sweater heading to auction

Princess Diana's whimsical red sweater with the lone black sheep motif will soon be available for sale. It has been in storage for 40 years.

Sotheby's on Monday announced that the jumper will be up for auction in August. It will headline the inaugural "Fashion Icons" sale during New York Fashion Week with an offer estimate of $50,000 to $80,000.

Online bidding for the original red sweater will run from Aug. 31 to Sept. 14 through Sotheby's. The luxury broker will also display the jumper to the public at its Manhattan headquarters starting Sept. 7.

The broker noted that the sweater has been "meticulously preserved." Cynthia Houlton, Sotheby's Global Head of Fashion and Accessories, told People that it could fetch the same price or higher as Princess Diana's Virgin Atlantic sweatshirt, which RR Auction sold for $53,533 in 2019. But the stakes are higher for the red jumper because it has never come to market.

"They very randomly came across this sweater, it's not like they were sitting on this sweater for some period of time and then decided who they should sell it to," she said of its designers, Sally Muir and Joanna Osbourne of Warm & Wonderful.

The late Princess of Wales was just 19 years old when she paired the eye-catching piece with jeans and wore it to then Prince Charles' polo match in June 1981. It was one month before their royal wedding. Muir and Osbourne received a letter from Buckingham Palace a few weeks later about the outfit.

A secretary had informed them that the princess had damaged the whimsical jumper and asked if it could be replaced or repaired. The designers eventually sent a replacement and the original sweater had been forgotten until Osbourne stumbled upon it in storage.

"I was in the attic in February searching for a pattern, and I just happen to notice this old wine box in a corner — and there was a red sheep jumper wrapped in a cotton bedspread. It was well preserved, and I had a kind of Groundhog Day moment and thought, 'Could this be the one?'" Osbourne told the publication.

She said she "looked at the cuff which had obviously been sewn back on," called Muir, and excitedly told her, "I think I've found the actual real Diana jumper!' "

Muir acknowledged that they "had just sort of forgotten about it" and that the discovery eventually led them to a call with Sotheby's.

She shared, "We looked at all photographs of her wearing it, and we compared the two and we both felt certain that it was the actual one. We just knew because every jumper is different, so it was easy to see. So we called Sotheby's!"

Houlton said that the original sweater's significance is further elevated because Princess Diana wore the design twice. With the original tucked away, she donned the new one to another one of her husband's polo matches in 1983. She wore it over a white blouse and paired it with white pants and oversized sunglasses.

"Being at a polo match for Prince Charles in 1981, and then again in 1983, of course, she was going to be photographed, of course, that was going to be captured. I think that also really speaks to how much she really liked this specific pattern and this sweater," she explained adding that the reason behind why she wore the sweater in two very high-profile places still stirs controversy to this day.

Muir said the second time Princess Diana wore the black sheep sweater may have been "the start of her breaking free and choosing her own pieces." Osbourne added that the first time she must have thought it was "amusing and fun" but the second, she "wore it in a much more sassy way with a shirt underneath and a black tie and she looked much more in control."