Found: John Travolta's white suit from Saturday Night Fever
V&A launched search for iconic outfit to include in upcoming Hollywood Costumes show
JOHN TRAVOLTA'S iconic white suit from Saturday Night Fever has been found after a four-year search by curators at the V&A. The dance film is synonymous with 1970s disco – the Bee Gees provided its infamous soundtrack – and the three-piece, flared-trousered suit is its emblem.
In the 1977 film, based on a New York magazine article by Nik Cohn, Travolta plays Tony Manero, a man who escapes the grim reality of his life through Saturday nights spent on the brightly lit dance floor in his trademark white suit.
The suit was sold in 1979, at a charity auction, to the American film critic Gene Siskel. Travolta inscribed the interior lining with the words: "So, here's to a classic, your friend, John Travolta." When Siskel died in 1995, the polyester suit was sold at another auction for a whopping £93,000 and has not been seen in public since.
The V&A, determined to find the outfit for its upcoming Hollywood Costumes exhibition, put out an international appeal. To their surprise the suit was already in London and the buyer was happy to lend it. The ensemble is in immaculate condition, confirmed as the real deal by Travolta's handwriting in the lining.
The owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Guardian: "The ritual of [Travolta's character] choosing his clothes to go out at night, in a world of his own and disconnected from the reality of his life, particularly resonated with me. It was the first film I really loved."
Originally Tony Manero was to dance the finale in black but the film's costume designer, Patrizia Von Brandenstein, insisted on white. She bought it off the peg at a cheap men's shop in Brooklyn, Manero's fictional home.
Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis, senior curator for the upcoming exhibition, which will include outfits worn by Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, said it was "exactly the sort of garment somebody from his background would see and long to own.
"The fact that it was bought from an ordinary shop that anyone could go into gave it a great truth."
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