As the inaugural post, I present the Dress I Most Wanted As a Child: Scarlett O'Hara's barbecue dress from Gone with the Wind, designed by Walter Plunkett. If I could have had this dress and Angela Lansbury's boots from The Pirates of Penzance, I would have been sartorially fulfilled for years.
I spent a summer week at age nine reading GWTW, and didn't draw breath until Bonnie Blue took her tumble off Mr. Butler. Then I burst into tears and my mother took the book away until the next morning. "It's only going to get worse from there," she said. She was right, but then I saw the movie, and oh, the clothes were just as good as they were in the book.
The barbecue dress may be the most popular one from the movie, with the possible exception of the red velvet. You can sew and buy reproductions, collect dolls from Barbie to Madame Alexander, decorate your tree with Christmas ornaments, and ogle photographs on websites galore. For a particular treat, I suggest this online exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin.
