Glamorous Diana dresses up for auction

The Associated Press, Thursday, February 28, 2013, 4:41am (PST)

LONDON (AP) — If dresses could talk, this dark navy, figure-hugging velvet number would have the best stories to tell.

Princess Diana wore it on state visits, at royal banquets and most memorably to a gala dinner at the White House in 1985, when she took to the dance floor with Hollywood star John Travolta.

The Victor Edelstein gown will go under the hammer at a vintage fashion auction in London in March, along with nine other of Diana's lavish evening dresses. In total, Kerry Taylor Auctions say the sale is expected to raise more than 800,000 pounds ($1.2 million.)

The dresses, all in the signature 1980s look — padded shoulders, puffed sleeves, crushed velvet — are snapshots in the princess's glamorous, jet-setting life.

The sale is set for March 19.