Scarlett O'Hara's Dresses In Need Of Repair
 

Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses in bad shape, need repairs

Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses in bad shape, need repairs
(Associated Press)

"AUSTIN, Texas — It’s time to find out if fans of "Gone With the Wind" frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the multiple Oscar-winning Civil War drama.

"The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O’Hara’s now tattered gowns from the 1939 film.

"The Ransom Center is planning an exhibit to mark the movie’s 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of them are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, the center’s collection assistant for costumes and personal effects...."

(Be sure to read the comment, or at least the first one!)

No link.:(

Sorry - I've added it now.

Honestly, never seen it, not interested in seeing it, and frankly I don't care. (Sorry you thought I was going somewhere else with that.)

But really, I don't get the glamor of the "Old South" and can't separate it from the system that allowed it to exist.

Gone with the Wind is possibly my favorite movie of all time (tied with Wizard of Oz) but I still don't know if I'd donate money to have the dresses repaired...

Best movie of all time, hands down. I would definitely donate, or tell mom and grandmother about. This sounds like a cause that the UDC would love to support.

Are you UDC, too? :)

If I had money to throw around, I would. It would be sad to see ANY noteworthy Academy Award winning outfit bite the dust due to misuse.

I will be soon, hopefully! The chapters around here are geared toward older women so they want me to wait until I graduate. Then I am off to the world of UDC and DAR and Junior League if everything works out.

I hope that dosen't sound like those "I'm not in college yet but I want to be an AKA" kinda statements!

As a costume historian I feel a need to donate and preserve these beautiful garments!! That movie is truly one of the great works of cinema :)

OMG You have my dream job!

It's not a job yet (but I wish!!). It's just a hobby that I dedicate a lot of time to. Seriously I've done a ton of research. I'm an avid seamstress (although I'm definitely not the world's best) and I love doing historical type costumes. I have sat through tons of those costume dramas no matter how horrible the plot was just to see the beautiful clothing. I actually worked in a theater where I was around a ton of stuff like that every day and that was a fun experience. I remember just wanting to sit in the costume closets and admire everything :D

Do you supply historical reenactment societies and stuff?

As much as I love the Antebellum looks from the beginning of the movie, I really love the back bustle looks of the later parts. The blue walking suit when she is driving her own carriage (scandal!) and the red dress with the feathers when Rhett forces her to confront Melanie and Ashley at the party.

Hahaha, can you tell I'm a woman obsessed? The saying in my signature always reminds me of Scarlett!

I think that we may have lent out costumes a couple of times but the costume manager was kind of reluctant to let stuff out (she was protective of her work!). I really do like the late Victorian/Edwardian styles a lot! But I have to say my favorite style is probably Rococo/Baroque (as if you couldn't tell by my name) And your siggy totally does remind me of Scarlett too!

Loved that you wrote this! I don't get it either but I don't have the tact to say it nicely.

Heh, I rarely manage to say things nicely, it seems. But it's kind of like the thread about what TV show you'd like to live in. All those past time periods really sucked for women, and when they got better for white women they still sucked for non-white women and men. Not that things are peachy keen now, but I really can't think of any other time period I'd actually want to live in and romanticizing it, whether through a movie or a TV show ignores a lot of the real issues.

With GWTW, and the romanticizing of the Old South, it pretends that everyone (usually just the person writing) was white, rich, and lived the life of luxury on a plantation sipping lemonade on the porch and going to society events. That was the experience of a tiny tiny number of people and it happened on the backs and pain of far too many to ignore.

A bit much for a GwtW thread? Maybe. But the movie's tied up in this selective memory all the way through.