Would you pay good money for iconic movie costumes?

A new record for the sale of a costume used in a Hollywood movie was recently set by a dress with a billowing pleated skirt worn by Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven-Year Itch,” which fetched a whopping $5.5 million!

Other top sales in the past include a bit less than a million greenbacks for Audrey Hepburn’s “little black dress” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and $4.4 million for Audrey’s gown in the Ascot scene in “My Fair Lady.”

Are these whopping sales figures telling show biz stars anything? There’s a fortune to be made in costumes associated with famous productions, so hold on to them!

Interest

On the local show biz front, however, the interest in famous stars’ costumes or clothes has yet to heat up. A pioneering effort in this regard was the old LVN Studio’s museum, which showcased some iconic costumes from the movie company’s celebrated productions.

But, no “amazing” figures were attached to them. Ditto for the costumes and other memorabilia of Philippine cinema featured in Mowelfund’s own film museum, which continues to attract droves of interested students.

Hmm, perhaps Mowelfund can take its cue from Marilyn Monroe’s posthumous coup and solicit TV-film costumes from local celebrities and hold a big, nostalgic sale to fill up its coffers, which are always in need of replenishment?

Decades ago, the old Music Museum honored our singing icons by showcasing some of their signature costumes as the performance venue’s main decor motif. However, there were no price tags attached, so we can’t even begin to make an educated guess on how much those costumes would fetch in a sale of show biz memorabilia.

Well, come to think of it, perhaps we can: Some years ago, we participated in a fundraising sale of some stars’ clothes, and a Snow White costume worn by a star in a TV musical show was sold – for less than P500! We knew, because we bought it – and it’s still being used in one of our  productions.

So, there’s no real money in local stars’ old costumes, right? Uh, not so fast. Recently, we polled some certified film buffs and asked them which stars’ signature or iconic outfits they would pay good money for, and these are some of their enthusiastic responses:

“I would gladly pay thousands – no, make that P10,000 – for the original mermaid ‘fishtail’ that the first Dyesebel, Edna Luna, wore in Gerry de Leon’s classic fantasy film!”

Superheroine

“Also for the abbreviated superheroine costume worn by the first movie Darna, Rosa del Rosario! Or, if it can no longer be located or retrieved, puwede na rin the costume of other Darnas like Vilma Santos – and Dolphy!”

Come to think of it, Vilma Santos alone should have a lot of “collectibles” in her show biz closet: Wouldn’t it be great if she could find her “stripper” costume from “Burlesk Queen”? Her own Dyesebel fishtail? One of the kicky costumes she wore in her longrunning dance-variety show on TV?

Personally speaking, the local movie costume we would most want to own is – Fred Montilla’s oversized, polka-dotted kiddie jumper in “Bondying”!