Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that runs Diana's former residence, Kensington Palace, bought the two gowns on Tuesday at a London auction of the princess's dresses.
The charity said Wednesday the dresses will remain in Britain and will be shown to the public in exhibitions. It hopes to show at least one of the gowns at a display of royal dresses this summer.
The gowns are a Bruce Oldfield black velvet evening gown Diana wore in 1985 and an ivory and pink sequined crepe dress by Catherine Walker worn on a state visit to Brazil in 1991.
The two combined were sold for more than 107,000 pounds ($162,266.)
