Ask any ten film fans to pick a favorite on-screen tuxedo or ballgown or hat or accessory and you're going to hear ten different answers covering a range of decades, genres, and styles.
Ask those same film fans to pick a favorite costume made from curtains and their responses will dwindle rather considerably, for there are just a handful of movies featuring characters who took a pair of scissors, memorably, to the drapery.
"Gone with the Wind" is one (proud Scarlett O'Hara just had to look her tassel-bearing best before asking Rhett Butler for money) as is Disney's "Enchanted." Princess Giselle traded her hoop-skirted fairytale look for a subtler frock made from window-covering material (subtler, though still with puffed sleeves).
And, yes, the final film in the triad is vaunted, venerated, and very, very Von Trapp. "The Sound of Music" features curtain clothing, famously, when new governess Maria sews a new set of colorful play clothes for her cooped-up charges.
Those play clothes are going up for auction on Thursday, April 30 to commemorate the Oscar-winning classic's 50th anniversary. Los Angeles-based Nate D. Sanders is the auction house behind the event. Minimum bid is listed at $800,000.
Are the lederhosen worn by Kurt and Friedrich in the garment grouping? Yes. Are the dresses and jumpers worn by the Liesl and Brigitta and Greta and Luisa and Marta Von Trapp included as well? Indeed they are.
The costumes are in "fine condition" though there is "minor spotting." Labels from Western Costume Co. and 20th Century Fox are still attached here and there.
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Five fast things:
1. The actors sang "Do-Re-Mi" while wearing the costumes. You knew that though. We're not saying you didn't, because you did. Fandom for this film is Serious, capital S.
2. The scene where Captain Von Trapp drives with Max and the Baroness, only to encounter the children in the trees, is also tied to the curtain costumes. Best comedic moment in the movie... right, "Sound" fans? Totally.
3. Like Scarlett O'Hara's dress, coincidentally, green is the theme with the Von Trapp kids' curtain clothing.
4. Unrelated to the auction but good to know: That annual sing-a-long for "The Sound of Music" happens at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday, June 26. Ever heard thousands of people quietly singing "Edelweiss" together? While waving tiny white fake flowers? A sight, for sure.
5. Let us pause and acknowledge Carol Burnett's variety show spin on the Scarlett O'Hara drapery dress, itself a rather remarkable moment in pop culture history.
C'mon... The curtain rod along the shoulders was a slice of genius. As genius a sartorial choice as Maria gazing at her curtains with a plan for play clothes for the Captain's kids.
