Almost 30 years after her death, Princess Diana continues to fascinate people around the world.Her clothes, photographs, jewellery and personal belongings still attract enormous interest, but there’s something especially striking about seeing the things she actually owned. From November, hundreds of those pieces will go on public display in California, offering visitors a closer look at the woman behind the famous photographs and headlines.The exhibition, “Princess Diana: Love Life Legacy – A Life of Giving,” opens on November 7, 2026, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. More than 700 original items connected to Diana’s life will be displayed, including some of her best-known fashion pieces.Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, at the age of 36. Nearly three decades later, her influence hasn’t faded. If anything, the fascination with her life and style has only grown.
A look inside Diana’s personal world
The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute and the Princess Diana Museum.The collection was built over many years by Renae Plant, founder of the Princess Diana Museum and a longtime admirer of the princess.Plant’s collection includes dresses, jewellery, photographs and other personal items associated with Diana. Many of these pieces have previously been available to audiences mainly through digital tours, making the physical exhibition a chance to see them up close.And for anyone interested in Diana’s style, the clothing is likely to be one of the biggest draws.Her wardrobe wasn’t simply a collection of glamorous royal outfits. Diana became a fashion figure in her own right, moving from the romantic, sometimes conservative looks of her early royal years towards a much more confident and individual style.
Diana’s clothes are still worth millions
The interest in Diana’s wardrobe isn’t just nostalgic.Her clothes have become hugely valuable at auction, with collectors willing to pay extraordinary sums for pieces once worn by the princess.A dress designed by Jacques Azagury and worn by Diana in 1985 sold for $1.1 million in 2023. A Victor Edelstein dress later fetched $910,000 in 2024.And the market shows little sign of losing interest.Last year, Julien’s Auctions’ “Princess Diana’s Style & A Royal Collection” sale in Beverly Hills brought in more than $5 million.That’s a remarkable figure for clothing, but it also says something about Diana’s lasting place in popular culture. Decades after her death, people are still drawn to what she wore, how she presented herself and what those pieces reveal about her life.
More than just the clothes
The exhibition isn’t being billed simply as a fashion show.Its title, “Love Life Legacy – A Life of Giving,” points towards the wider story the organisers want to tell about Diana — her public life, relationships, humanitarian work and the way she connected with people far beyond the British royal family.That side of Diana’s story is a big part of why her legacy has endured.She was often photographed in spectacular gowns and at major royal events, but she was also known for visiting hospitals, working with charities and using her public profile to draw attention to causes that mattered to her.The exhibition aims to bring those different sides together through objects that belonged to her and material connected to her life.
When and where to see the exhibition
Princess Diana: Love Life Legacy – A Life of Giving opens on November 7, 2026, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.The exhibition is scheduled to run until May 31, 2027.For Diana’s admirers, it’s an unusually personal way to revisit her story – not through another documentary or a collection of old photographs, but through hundreds of objects that were part of her actual life.And nearly 30 years after that night in Paris, the fact that people are still lining up to see Diana’s dresses and personal belongings says plenty about how difficult it has been for the world to let go of the woman once known simply as the People’s Princess.
