Keira Knightley’s unforgettable green ‘Atonement’ dress is going up for sale

By Amarachi Orie, CNN

(CNN) — Almost two decades after Keira Knightley bewitched audiences in the 2007 film, “Atonement,” the emerald-green silk dress she wore in a pivotal scene is coming up for auction.

Thanks to its enduring allure, the backless gown designed by Jacqueline Durran is expected to sell for up to £120,000 ($161,000) when it goes under the hammer 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 with the housekeeper’s son Robbie (played by James McAvoy) in the grand home library after weeks of romantic tension, and they confess their feelings for one another.

“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) said that to me, right at the beginning, which was obviously a lot of pressure on me to try and make this memorable dress,” she continued. “But we didn’t know, really. It was a complete surprise how much it did resonate with people and how much it was picked out as a single look from the movie.”

“When the film came out in 2007, I just remember so much about that dress,” Caroline Young, author of the 2022 book “The Color of Fashion: The Story of Clothes in Ten Colors,” told CNN. “It’s glamorous, it’s nostalgic, and that green is so significant,” she added.

“Green has a deep history of representing tempestuous love and illicit affairs,” Young wrote in her book, adding that the “Atonement” gown is “one of the most talked about green dresses in recent years.”

“Because that segment of the film was set in the 1930s,” Young told CNN, the dress “has this Jean Harlow-esque quality — the sort of slinkiness of the cut, the thin straps.”

“It’s this perfect summer before tragedy strikes,” Young added.

‘Instantly recognizable’

Wright had various instructions for Durran for the dress design, including that “it should have movement at the hem and be quite full-skirted,” Durran said. He “wanted it as showstopping as we could make it, and that it should 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 is the hottest day of the year.”

For this reason, Durran said she tried to make the dress from “very fine fabric, and make it very light and unstructured.” She drew on reference books from the 1920s and ‘30s and “pulled out things that I thought would suit Keira.”

The emerald gown, “brought to life with exquisite artistry on screen” now stands as “one of the most instantly recognizable” dresses in fashion history, Thais Hitchins, head of sale at Christie’s London, said in a statement shared with CNN, adding that the gown is an “emblem of desire, lust and heartbreaking romance.”

Following the movie, the dress was taken from the production archive and sold at a charity auction in 2008, and it has remained in an American private collection since, a spokesperson for Christie’s told CNN. “Coming up to 20 years since the film’s release, it’s a poignant time to revisit the iconic dress and shine a spotlight on this incredible piece of fashion history,” they added.

While 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 those passionate about film and costume history, as well as museums and institutions, given the gown’s cultural significance.

The garment will be sold as part of the “Love & Lust: A Literary Guide” sale. Other items in the sale include the artworks for the release posters of the 1927 sci-fi film “Metropolis” and 1931 vampire horror “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 “The Sleeping Beauty.”

Film fashion is highly sought after at 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 (equivalent to around $920,000 at the time), more than six times its estimated value.

Hepburn’s personal collection of her clothes and memorabilia then went up for auction at Christie’s in London in 2017, selling for a total of £4,635,500 ($6.2 million).

In 2015, a dress worn by Vivien Leigh in “Gone With the Wind” also fetched $137,000.

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