Elizabeth Taylor's first wedding dress sells for nearly $188,000 at London auction

June 26, 2013 at 8:45PM
FILE - In this June 19, 2013 file photo, Christie's employee adjusts Elizabeth Taylor's first wedding dress, designed by Helen Rose, at the auction house Christie's in London. The dress has fetched 121,875 pounds ($187,931) at a London auction. Christie's director Nicolette Tomkinson said Wednesday June 26, the sale price, more than double the highest estimate, reflected the gown's significance in the history of film and fashion.
FILE - In this June 19, 2013 file photo, Christie's employee adjusts Elizabeth Taylor's first wedding dress, designed by Helen Rose, at the auction house Christie's in London. The dress has fetched 121,875 pounds ($187,931) at a London auction. Christie's director Nicolette Tomkinson said Wednesday June 26, the sale price, more than double the highest estimate, reflected the gown's significance in the history of film and fashion. (Associated Press - Ap/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

LONDON — The gown that an 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor wore for her first wedding to hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr. has fetched 121,875 pounds ($187,931) at a London auction.

Christie's director Nicolette Tomkinson said Wednesday's sale price, more than double the highest estimate, reflected the gown's significance in the history of film and fashion.

Taylor wore the cream-colored, seed pearl-encrusted satin dress — complete with waist-cinching built-in corset — to the first of her eight weddings in May 1950. Hundreds of guests including Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire turned up, and studio MGM boasted that "more stars than there are in heaven" attended.

Taylor and Hilton divorced months later, and the actress went on to wed seven more times. She died in 2011, aged 79.

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