It was supposed to be a dress that marked new beginnings: a figure-hugging bamboo print frock worn by Amy Winehouse on stage in Belgrade in 2011. At the time she wore it, she had completed her final stint in rehab and had at last extricated herself from a toxic two-year marriage to husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

Her friend, Naomi Parry – the singer’s stylist who had designed the dress for her – hoped it would be a sartorial marker of happier times ahead.

Sadly, all those hopes came to naught.

Instead of a career-changing renaissance, Amy was seen drunkenly stumbling around on stage in that dress, as she dramatically fell off the wagon. It was to be her final ever concert – she was found dead, surrounded by empty vodka bottles, just a month and five days later. She was just 27.

Extraordinarily, that very dress has gone on to become a signifier of yet more torment. It’s no exaggeration to say that it has destroyed Naomi’s life, as well as that of Catriona Gourlay, another close friend.

Because for the past two years, both women have been enmeshed in a deeply distressing legal battle with none other than Amy’s father Mitch over the fate of that dress and other personal belongings of the singer.

Mitch, a former London black cab driver turned singer, took the pair to court for selling items his daughter gave to them – including the bamboo dress – at auction.

He claimed they ‘deliberately concealed’ the items from him.

The sums involved were not insubstantial: the bamboo dress alone went on to be sold in Beverly Hills for £192,000 five years ago – 13 times the auctioneer’s estimate.

So desperate was Mitch to recover this money that he took the legal action all the way to the High Court.

This week, however, the court ruled against him, finding that his accusations against his late daughter’s two dearest friends were not credible.

Judge Sarah Clarke KC sided with the women, saying: ‘I find neither Ms Parry nor Ms Gourlay deliberately concealed any of their disputed items from the claimant and, even if I am wrong about that, Mr Winehouse could have discovered what disputed items the defendants had with reasonable diligence.’

It should have been a moment of celebration for Naomi and Catriona, who were such an intrinsic part of Amy’s inner circle that they were named on her headstone alongside Mitch.

Any feeling of triumph, though, was bittersweet. The reality is the toll of this legal action on the women has been considerable.

So much so, say friends of the women, that they feel it’s payback time.

I can now reveal that Naomi and Catriona are considering what steps they could take against Mitch for making such harmful allegations against them.

One pal says that they ‘simply cannot just sit back and take this’, despite him being Amy’s father.

‘It sounds very trite to say it’s war, but it kind of is. There is a feeling that it’s payback time,’ says my source.

‘They will be looking at ways in which they can make Mitch take accountability for what he’s done to them, for the hurt he has caused them and for the potential reputational damage that he has done to them.

‘There is much scepticism out there about Mitch and his intentions, so that has made it all a bit better for Naomi and Catriona.

‘But still, it has been a nightmare. They just don’t understand why he had to do it to them. He has so much of Amy’s money already.’

Indeed, the court heard that Mitch is already a multimillionaire, having inherited his daughter’s significant fortune because she died intestate.

Catriona’s barrister also told the court that within days of the first auction in 2021, Mitch vowed to unleash ‘the finest and most aggressive attorneys in London’.

He also tried to persuade the police to investigate the friends for fraud, which was ‘rebuffed immediately’. Mitch later withdrew the allegations of theft, it should be stressed.

I’m told: ‘Right now, the girls are taking time to get over it and heal – but watch out Mitch.’

Friends of the pair say their lives have been put on hold while they’ve fought the legal action, and the stress has taken an impact on their health. There’s also the matter of the impact on their livelihoods.

One friend of Naomi’s told the Daily Mail: ‘It has been absolutely horrific. The action has hugely affected Naomi’s styling work. They have essentially been called liars and thieves and that is not helpful when you’re trying to earn a living.

‘This has been hanging over them for so long. It’s just awful what Mitch put them both through and for what? So he could make yet more money from his daughter?’

Another source tells me: ’Naomi and Catriona were furious when this began and they are still now.’

The legal action against them began in February 2024 when Mitch accused Naomi and Catriona of auctioning Amy’s possessions without his permission.

The 75-year-old claims they profited from selling dresses, used lipstick and eyeliner a decade after his daughter’s death.

His lawyers told a trial back in December that the pair had ‘deliberately concealed’ the sales and legal proceedings were his ‘only means of obtaining answers’.

He claimed the women owed him as much as £730,000.

Barristers for Naomi and Catriona, however, said the items were either gifted by Amy or already owned by them.

Indeed, the singer was known for her generous nature: friends were forbidden to buy drinks on their nights out while she picked up the tab. And her loyalty to her friends, on whom she relied on so heavily towards the end of her life, was particularly intense.

To that end, the actress Sadie Frost and TV personality Kelly Osbourne gave witness statements on behalf of Naomi and Catriona, in which they described how Amy regularly gave away her clothing.

The bamboo dress is one of the items the women used to honour their friend’s legacy in a decade-long project. Devastated by grief following her death, Naomi masterminded a book, Beyond Black, that explored the singer’s life through photos and memorabilia, and they both staged an exhibition of the same name which started at the Grammy Museum in LA and ended at the Design Museum in London.

Naomi and Catriona say Mitch co-operated with all of it.

In 2021, the women decided their endeavours were complete and decided to part ways with some items in their collection.

And so, in two auctions they began to sell off some of the dresses, handbags, clothes, underwear and make-up, as well as notes and sketches, that Amy had given them over the years.

Among the items sold was a heart-shaped Moschino purse Amy wore at the 2007 Brit Awards, which sold for £160,000, a Dolce & Gabbana dress which sold for £20,000 – and, of course, the bamboo print dress.

The sales prompted former taxi driver Mitch to bring the case in his role as administrator of his daughter’s estate.

He claims that Naomi and Catriona personally made £3.3million from selling off 156 of Amy’s items, although the girls say Mitch’s figures are exaggerated.

He subsequently backed down and later petitioned to claim back £730,000 of their profits.

Team Mitch has vociferously briefed the media against the women, insisting that he had not been given satisfactory answers from Naomi or Catriona – something they have denied all along.

It’s a sad postscript to Amy’s legacy, who achieved so much in a short, but deeply troubled, life.

And while she accumulated a wealth of £5million, she, say friends, always remained emphatically down to earth.

‘Amy would have absolutely hated this,’ says a friend of singer. ‘She just wanted everyone to get along, be friends and love one another.

‘She hated any sort of tension between her friends and family. She really was the loveliest person you could have met. It‘s devastating.

‘The 15th anniversary of Amy’s death is drawing closer and closer. It’s just tragic to think that this has all happened to two people she loved most dearly in the world.’