Nearly two decades after Keira Knightley mesmerized audiences in the 2007 film “Atonement,” the emerald green silk dress she wore in a pivotal scene is up for auction.
Thanks to its enduring appeal, the backless dress designed by Jacqueline Durran is expected to sell for up to £120,000 ($161,000) when it goes on sale at Christie’s in London on December 9.
Knightley’s character Cecilia wore the dress in a climactic scene in Joe Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s tragic romance novel. During the scene, Cecilia makes love to the housekeeper’s son, Robbie (played by James McAvoy) in the house’s large library after weeks of romantic tension, and they confess their feelings for each other.
“When we started making the movie, we all knew it was a pivotal moment and it had to be a memorable dress,” Durran told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published in 2017.
“Joe (Wright) told me that from the beginning, which obviously put a lot of pressure on me to try and make this memorable dress,” she continued. “But we didn’t really know that. It was a complete surprise how much it resonated with people and how much it was chosen as just one aspect of the film.”
“When the movie came out in 2007, I remember that dress so much,” Caroline Young, author of the 2022 book “The Color of Fashion: The History of Clothes in Ten Colors,” told CNN. “It’s glamorous, it’s nostalgic and that green is so meaningful,” she added.
“Green has a long history of representing tempestuous love and illicit affairs,” Young wrote in her book, adding that the “Atonement” dress is “one of the most talked about green dresses in recent years.”
“Because this segment of the film takes place in the 1930s,” Young told CNN, the dress “has that Jean Harlow quality — the kind of fitted cut, the thin straps.”
“It’s that perfect summer before tragedy struck,” Young added.
Wright had given Durran various instructions regarding the design of the dress, including that “it had to have movement at the hem and be quite loose,” Durran said. He “wanted it to be as dramatic as possible, and to be green”, although he “wasn’t specific” about the shade, and “the mood of the dress should be that it could remind the audience that it’s the hottest day of the year”.
For this reason, Durran said she tried to make the dress from “very fine fabrics and make it very light and unstructured.” She drew inspiration from reference works from the 1920s and 1930s and “pulled out things that I thought would suit Keira.”
The emerald gown, “brought to life with exquisite artistry on screen” is now “one of the most instantly recognizable dresses” in fashion history, said Thais Hitchins, head of sales at Christie’s London, in a statement shared with CNN, adding that the dress is “an emblem of desire, lust and heartbreaking romance.”
After the film, the dress was removed from the production archives and sold at a charity auction in 2008, and it has remained in a private U.S. collection ever since, a Christie’s spokesperson told CNN. “Twenty years after the film’s release, it’s a poignant moment to revisit the iconic dress and shine a spotlight on this incredible part of fashion history,” they added.
Although it is “difficult to predict” who will bid for the dress, the spokesperson said they expect the dress to appeal to individual collectors with a particular interest in “Atonement” and enthusiasts of film and costume history, as well as museums and institutions, given the cultural significance of the dress.
The garment will be sold as part of the “Love & Lust: A Literary Guide” sale. Other items in the sale include artwork from the release posters for the 1927 science fiction film “Metropolis” and the 1931 vampire horror film “Dracula,” three autograph letters written by British naval hero Horatio Nelson to his mistress Emma, Lady Hamilton, and the original costume worn by English prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora in a 1960 production of “La Belle au sleeping wood”.
Cinematographic fashion is highly sought after in international auction houses.
Audrey Hepburn’s black Italian satin dress, designed by Hubert de Givenchy for the 1961 romantic comedy “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” sold at Christie’s in 2006 for £467,200 (the equivalent of about $920,000 at the time), more than six times its estimated value.
Hepburn’s personal collection of her clothing and memorabilia was later auctioned at Christie’s in London in 2017, fetching a total of £4,635,500 ($6.2 million).
In 2015, a dress worn by Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind” also sold for $137,000.
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