As a long time fan of Gone With the Wind, I was saddened this week when The Henry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin announced that poor Scarlett Hara’s dresses were in ruin. Apparently, costumes produced for stage productions aren’t constructed to last, and the dresses, which are actually exact replicas of the originals used in the 1939 movie, have been displayed, packed and unpacked for decades, and are now in such bad shape they are no longer able to display them.
Anyone who has ever seen Gone With The Wind will never forget Scarlett’s green velvet dress made from curtains, which was the only material Scarlett could find after the Yankees’ got done ravishing the plantation after the Civil War. That dress alone is surely a National Treasure, and may be the most famous single piece of movie clothing ever made, with the exception of Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
Only Scarlett O’Hara could wear a green velvet dress made of curtains and make men swoon. Scarlett not only wore the dress and matching bonnet to meet with Rhett Butler in prison, she also trotted through the muddy streets of Atlanta with her Mammy in the gown, and used it to seduce helpless Frank Kennedy into marrying her. Poor unsuspecting Frank had been Scarlett’s sister’s boyfriend, until Scarlett showed up in her green velvet curtain dress.
Hearing today about the tattered remnants of the Scarlett’s wardrobe, I hope one day to actually get a chance to see the gowns in person. The collection also contains several other of Scarlett’s dresses, including the wedding gown from her brief marriage to Charles Hamilton and her scandalous burgundy ball gown, which Rhett ordered her to wear to Melly’s house after she became the subject of scandal over her affections for Ashley Wilkes.
Gone like the wind are the days when women actually wore clothing like this. The University of Texas hopes to raise at least $30,000 to restore the dresses, house them and buy mannequins for displaying the gowns. In 2014, the Ransom Center is planning an exhibit of the dresses celebrating the 75th anniversary of Gone With the Wind. For more information about donations, you can access the Ransom Center website online at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/contribute/endowments/opportunities/costumes/
References
Henry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; Retreived from: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/gwtw/wardrobe/curtain/curtchoose.html
