What happens to the costumes used in movies?
Are they kept in storage, repurposed or auctioned?
I am watching “My Fair Lady” and the dresses in this movie are so beautiful.I wonder what happened to them.
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Some remain in costume inventories of studios.
Some of them are sold of fall into private ownership one way or another.
There are shops in Hollywood where you can get some original costumes and artifacts from films and TV, etc.
I was googling general information about auctions, because I recall reading mentions of famous dresses up for sale. But I ran across an extremely specific relevant item in a story about auctioning off Debbie Reynolds’ giant collection of Hollywood artifacts.
“When Reynolds decided to auction off her collection, she turned to [auctioneer] Maddalena. Over the years he produced three auctions for her, including a high-profile 2011 event that featured several iconic costumes, from Hepburn’s black-and-white Cecil Beaton gown from My Fair Lady, which fetched $3.7 million, to Marilyn Monroe’s white halter dress from The Seven Year Itch, which went for $5.6 million.”
Hollywood Reporter – You Could Own Audrey Hepburn’s Iconic ‘Sabrina’ Gown
Some are repurposed. I’ve read where back in the older days that the stars were allowed to keep them. Some had mini museums in their homes where they kept them. Many used them for income in their later life when they auctioned them off to the highest bidder.
I just recently read that Olivia Newton John donated the leather jacket that she wore in Grease to a cancer charity. Some kind man paid something like a ¼ million dollars to get it back and he persoally gave it back to her because he felt that was where it belonged
@SEKA -Nice!
I watched My Fair Lady again last night and there was a feature on the DVD that showed a bit of the amount of work that went into the dresses and hats worn in the Ascot scene
I am amazed every time I watch this movie.
According to this Debbie Reynolds had purchased the ascot dress and hat from the movie for $100,000 and then sold it years later for $3.7 million. Not a bad profit
@SEKA – I wondered where that particular dress wound up. That’s a very good profit.
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