This blue coat was first seen on Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny Price in the 1983 Mansfield Park, though it may date to an earlier time. It was seen again on Julie Cox as Annabella in the 2003 Byron. Most recently it was spotted on Lily Dodsworth as Cecily Hanson in the 2019 last season of Poldark.
Costume Credit: Shrewsbury Lasses
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
Anonymous
Thanks! I got very lucky. It went up for sale some years ago and I passed on it. I regretted it for about four years. When it came up for sale again from Propstore, I jumped on it immediately. It sat in storage in my closet for a few more years, but now it’s finally on display and admired like it deserves to be.
Anonymous
Funny you should mention this dress. I spotted it too the other day, as it is a dress very near and dear to me.
This lovely blue floral gown is a vintage piece. The dress was made available in the 50s in three different colors – blue, pink and green.
The blue gown was featured in the 2007 first season of Mad Men on January Jones as Betty Draper. An interesting note about this dress, which the anon mentioned, is that it was the gown that Mattel chose to use when creating a Betty Draper Barbie Doll.
The same blue vintage bubble dress was seen again in the 2019 third season of The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel, where it was worn by an extra.
With most costume dramas it is safe to say the dress reuses are exactly the same. However, when you start to get to pieces that can still be found in vintage shops, there is the possibility that more than one copy is floating around. Sometimes in shows if there are multiple overlaps, it’s safe to say it’s the same dress - for instance, Mad Men and The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel have another costume in common, which you can see here.
However, in this particular instance – while it’s the same model of dress most certainly, it is not the exact same dress. How do I know? First, because the spacing of the flowers is different. Secondly – because I happen to own the dress worn by January Jones in Mad Men. I keep it on display next to my Mad Men Barbie dolls.
Costume Credit: Anonymous, Katie S.
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
This incredibly detailed gown was worn by Mary Astor as Mrs.Anna Smith in the 1944 film Meet Me in St.Louis. It was used again in the 1958 film Gigi, where it was worn on an extra. The gown was ultimately purchased by Debbie Reynold’s when MGM sold the majority of their costumes and props in 1970. The gown was ultimately sold to a private bidder when Reynold’s put her collection up for auction in 2011.
Costume Credit: James, Richard
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
This pink costume was likely created for Sophia Myles as Isolde in the 2006 film Tristan and Isolde. It was seen again recently in the 2019 season of Vikings, where it was worn by Georgia Hirst as Torvi.
Costume Credit: Lauren
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
Anonymous
The only one found so far is the one above. You can find the original entry here. There are almost certainly more, but they have yet to be spotted. If anyone has found any, please send them in and I would be happy to post them.
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
This brass bed, once owned by MGM, has been used in at least three different productions over the years. It was first used in the 1958 film adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In 1964 it was prominently featured within the plot of the movie The Unsinkable Molly Brown. It was used a third time in the television show Love, American Style, which ran from 1969 through 1974.
Costume Credit: Richard, Katie S.
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
Recycling gowns is hardly new. It has been in practice in film and television since its invention and has been a common practice in theatre productions for hundreds of years. In addition, it is also sometimes seen in paintings. Many artists have been known to reuse clothing that they painted. For example, a yellow housecoat trimmed in ermine appears in several paintings by Vermeer. Sometimes the artist owned the actual garment they painted (almost certainly in Vermeer’s case), while other times it may have been an example from a woman’s magazine that they copied over and over again.
This beautiful striped Victorian gown is especially interesting because it is actually based on a gown from works of art by French artist James Tissot. The reproduction gown itself has been seen in at least five productions. It was first worn on Rya Kihlstedt as Lizzy Elmsworth in the 1995 production of The Buccaneers. It was seen again Maite Yerro as Juliet on a movie screen in the 1996 film Evita. In 2000 it was worn by Neve McIntosh as Lucy, Lady Audley in Lady Audley’s Secret. In 2001 it was worn by Valerie Koch as Sophie Charlotte in Sophie - Sissis kleine Schwester. Lastly, it was worn by Isobel Pravda as Camille Monet in the 2006 mini-series The Impressionists.
The original gown on which the costume was based was not only painted by James Tissot - it was painted by him numerous times. Tissot was an artist who was mostly known for his paintings of women dressed in their elaborate gowns, and while it is not known if Tissot owned some of the gowns he repeatedly painted or not, the fact that his parents were both in the Fashion Industry might lead one to believe that his owning them would not have been out of the realm of possibility. In Professor Lou Taylor’s book The Study of Dress History, he writes:
Tissot reused favorite garments over periods of two or three years. Thus the notion that his 1870s paintings reflected the most up-to-date fashions may be flawed.
Five paintings in which Tissot painted this black and white gown include: The Captain and the Mate (c.1873), The Return from the Boating Trip (c.1873), Boarding the Yacht (c.1873), Still on Top (c.1874) and Holiday (c.1876).
To see a full gallery of Tissot’s paintings and the beautiful gowns they showcase, go here.
Costume Credit: Katie S., Kiteflier, Shrewsbury Lasses
E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com
No update this week or next weekend, as I am busy with work and traveling, but please do check out this wonderful article from Frock Flicks, for a behind the scenes tour of the largest costume house in the world, Angels Costumier. We’ve spoken a lot about Angels here at Recycled Movie Costumes, so please check it out, as it is very relevant and may answer many of your costume-related questions. Be sure to also thank the lovely ladies at Frock Flicks who work so hard to consistently put out excellent content five days a week.
Anonymous
So here’s the thing. I don’t consider any of the costumes you’ve listed (aside from the Scarlett O’Hara costumes) as iconic. I think time is what makes something iconic, and Harry Potter and Stranger Things have not had enough time. I’m not saying they won’t become iconic - I’m just saying they aren’t there yet.
The other thing that makes something iconic, I believe, is that a person knows what you are talking about without even having seen the movie. Most people who have not seen Gone with the Wind know what Scarlett O’Hara’s costumes look like. That’s iconic. Does someone know Hermoine’s Yule ball gown without having seen the movie? Doubtful.
The Harry Potter costumes likely won’t get reused just because Warner Brothers will use them until the end of time for displays, etc. I don’t think the Patil twins saris will be reused, but I think the only reason why we recognize them is that side by side, they are inversions of one another. Separate them…and would you know they are from Harry Potter? I wouldn’t.
As for Scarlett O’Hara’s costumes, which I absolutely DO consider iconic, they HAVE been reused. Yes, even iconic costumes get reused, because you see - they weren’t iconic yet.
Scarlett’s BBQ dress was reused, which you can see here. You can find the drapery gown reused here. The red dress was never officially reused as far as I know, but it was considered for the movie Rebecca. You can see it here in a costume test on Joan Fontaine. The purple dress (of which there were at least 15 copies made, and I do not quite consider iconic) was reused in a western. I’ve not managed to find screenshots yet, but I have notes from someone who owned one of the copies who has documentation as to this fact.
