Museum Seeks Money To Repair Scarlett O'Hara's Gowns

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Aug 11th 2010 at 9:01PM

In the 1939 movie "Gone With The Wind," Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara famously flirts with Clark Gable's Rhett Butler while wearing a dress made from her mother's curtains. But now those curtains are in need of mending. The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas is home to five dresses worn by the actress Vivian Leigh in the movie including Scarlett O'Hara's Green Velvet Curtain Dress. The costumes are currently in such fragile condition that they cannot currently be exhibited.

The Center is raising money to help restores the costumes in time for a major exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary of Gone With The Wind in 2014. The other dresses includes the figure-hugging burgundy gown she wears to Ashley Wilkes' birthday party, the wedding dress from when she married Charles Hamilton, a blue velvet peignoir and a green velvet dressing gown. The Center also wants to be able to loan the dresses to other museums around the world and is raising money for both restoration and protective housing for shipping. The center is hoping to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O'Hara's dresses.

[via Austin Business Journal]

Tags: costumes, costumes in films, gone with the wind, scarlett ohara