Good news: Blair Waldorf's wardrobe lives on! Plus, where you can find cast-offs from your favorite dearly departed shows.
This time of the year is always bittersweet for me. Yes, spring has arrived, but so has the end of the traditional TV season (although cable has filled in what used to be the warm weather programming drought with hits like "Game of Thrones"). While must-watch shows like "How to Get Away With Murder" and "Empire" just concluded their debut runs, some beloved series are completely over. Sets will be dismantled and the actors and crew will (hopefully) head on to new jobs, but another crucial question remains: when a show wraps, what happens to the clothes?
The number one rule of thumb that audiences might not realize is that the costumes are officially property of the studio producing the show. Every piece is documented, photographed, logged, tagged and stored, and the wardrobe is meticulously audited when a show wraps. Plus, it's the producers — not the costume designers — who decide on the fate of all those Manolos, 3.1 Phillip Lim dresses and, in some cases, plushie suits (more on that below). The entire end process not only involves the costume team and production, but also the number crunchers from the accounting department.
Granted, some shows (like period dramas) rent part of the wardrobe from costume shops. Or, in the case of "Gossip Girl," the really good dresses — like the red Oscar de la Renta ball gown that Blair wore in Paris for her train station moment with Chuck (see above) — and all of the posh bags were samples on loan from the designers, similar to the fashion editorial process. In those instances, the items are simply packed and returned.
The studios can also reclaim all of their purchases to stockpile into a massive costume shop for other productions to rent, but the recognizable, iconic looks worn by star characters are placed into the archives. "Gossip Girl" costume designer Eric Daman estimated that 80 percent of the wardrobe from the show ended up in the Warner Bros. stash. However, the studio kept signature looks, like Serena's not-so-innocent Constance Billard School for Girls uniform, to display in a gallery on a rotating basis with other famous costumes for studio tours.
If you think that Leighton Meester wore Blair's signature headbands off the lot or that Kiernan Shipka stashed a '60s-era "Mad Men" dress into her bag at the end of a work day, think again. The actors are strictly prohibited from keeping or borrowing any of their show's clothing or accessories. "Well, they’re not supposed to," said "Reign" costume designer Meredith Markworth-Pollack. "I’ll put it that way." That said, there are rare exceptions when top-billed stars have the privilege of scoring select pieces as part of their contracts with the studio.
"When I was doing 'Sex and the City,' Sarah Jessica [Parker] had a deal where she could get some of the things," said Daman, thereby confirming what we were all thinking. SJP didn't help herself to the entirety of Carrie's Jimmy Choo, Valentino and Manolo-filled wardrobe, though. "She’s not greedy or anything like that," Daman asserted. There is also a contract line item designated as "Loss and Damages," or "L and D" for short, which accounts for pieces that might not make it to the final auditing stage. To stay above board, Daman said, if an actor really, really wants something, he or she could ask for approval from the producers.
If actors are patient enough to wait until a show wraps, they could also take advantage of costume and prop sales that are open to the public — meaning to other productions, costume houses and even to you and me. "Girls" and "Orange is the New Black" costume designer Jenn Rogien worked as an associate costume designer on the 2009 series "Kings," which was canceled by NBC after one season. She recalled one specialty-size actor who ended up purchasing a bunch of his own character's suits. "He had a really hard time finding suits,"she said. "So he was thrilled to be able to buy several already tailored suits for his [regular] life and to wear to auditions." Rogien also scored big. "I ended up buying a character’s shoe closet because she had really fabulous shoes," she laughed.
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