nypost.com: Her enormous costume-rental warehouse, in Long Island City, boasts some 100,000 pieces spanning the 1860s to the 1980s, from gowns and workwear to shoes, hats and all matter of undergarments, including corsets, bustiers and bustles. One mannequin wears the sparkly emerald sheath donned by Beyoncé in “Cadillac Records”; another sports the flirty brown lace and chiffon number worn throughout “Ma Rainey’s” by Taylour Paige, who plays Ma’s much younger girlfriend, Dussie Mae.
3 comments:
I can not imagine how amazing it would be to walk through this warehouse and to try and recognize pieces from different movies and shows. It is absolutely amazing that this one woman owns so many pieces by herself, and how dedicated she is to the clothing. I would imagine that this is the dream of any costume designer, to get to wander through the warehouse and pick those perfect pieces. I think there are so many characters that have a look that has become so closely associated with them that it must be excellent to get to look for the piece that will make the look. It is unfortunate that Uffner is going to have to move again. I can only imagine the logistics that go into moving a warehouse of this size, and with some clothing that I am sure is very fragile. Hopefully Uffner will be able to find a location that can accommodate her and her clothing for many years to come.
This warehouse seems absolutely incredible. I would love to just explore it and see all the clothes and get to try them on. There is a store near where I live called Decades of Fashion, which is a medium sized store with vintage clothes organized by decade. I love going there are looking at all the clothes and imagining who might have worn them before they ended up in the store. I can't imagine this on such a large scale that Helen Uffner's collection is. It is apparent that she puts so much love and care into her work and the clothes she finds. It is clear that she is very attached to them and very knowledgeable. I feel that a collection like Helen Uffner's must be preserved because of its incredible historical value. I really hope that I will have the opportunity to visit this warehouse someday, because while I am not interested in doing costume design I still think that it would be an absolutely incredible experience.
I really enjoyed this article. I had heard about Hellen Uffner’s Vintage collection before from the Costume Coalition Industry, but didn't really know how much she rented out items. The photos of the warehouse are really amazing, I can only imagine how it is to walk around there. Although it is very distressing to hear that she has to move locations! I feel like we hear this all the time with the real estate near new york. But with costume warehouses and things of that nature you really have to have all of that space for storage but also be accessible for people to come and look at the stock and actors come for fittings. Although you cant really use vintage pieces for most broadway shows since they must be worn 8 times a week and washed every single day, the only scary thing about suing vintage for film is that you don't have any multiples of the costumes.
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