Hollywood’s Costume Rental Giant Closes and Its Iconic Wardrobe Goes to Auction
Vintage clothing treasures and Hollywood wardrobe pieces are up for auction as a costume rental company that has outfitted everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Tom Hanks closes.
It’s the end of an era for Costume Rental Corporation (CRC), a North Hollywood company that provided costumes for film, television shows, and commercials. After five decades, the company is closing, and its vast collection of costumes is going to auction.
The auction will be held by ThreeSixty Asset Advisors on September 25 and 30 and October 1. The first session, September 25, consists of more than 800 lots. According to a press release from ThreeSixty Asset Advisors, days two and three will have 2,500 trade/volume lots catering to industry buyers, but will still be open to the public with smaller lots available.
President of ThreeSixty Asset Advisors, Jeff Tanenbaum says, “What makes this sale special is its range and depth – from vintage period clothing and screen-ready uniforms to memorabilia that will intrigue generations of consumers.” Costume designer Shon LeBlanc, who assists CRC with auction preparation, calls the collection “a treasure trove.” He points out the famous names involved; not just the stars who wore the costumes, like “Marilyn Monroe, Heddy Lamar, Veronica Lake, Debbie Reynolds, Robert DeNiro, Chevy Chase, and many more,” but also designers. “I found the holy grail of costume pieces—a vintage tie by the iconic costume designer Adrian,” he said.
The September 25 session, whose lots are available for browsing on LiveAuctioneers, includes a wide variety of period costumes, military uniforms, formal wear, and accessories; both studio-made and authentic vintage. There are costumes from films like The Vagabond King, a 1956 musical set during the reign of Louis XI of France; iconic war films Apocalypse Now (1979) and Saving Private Ryan (1998); and more recent movies like the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Tannenbaum highlights “the vibrant wedding costumes in Coming to America...the nostalgic baseball uniforms of the original Bad News Bears…Tom Hanks’s iconic sweater in Castaway. And just added—a Marilyn Monroe skirt and body forms used for both Monroe and Lucille Ball.”
The auction promises to be a retrospective on not only fashion and Hollywood history but also the 50-year legacy of a costume company.