It's the suit that defined the disco era and turned John Travolta into a bona fide style icon. Now, some lucky collector has the chance to own a piece of cinema history, as the famous white suit from Saturday Night Fever goes on sale.
Released in 1977, Saturday Night Fever captured the zeitgeist for movie goers at the time, as disco was on the way out and a dark, gritty realism began to emerge in American cinema. The film, soundtracked by the BeeGees, turned Travolta into a star, and set scores of young men trying to recreate his sultry dance moves.
The polyester three-piece suit – with a fitted waistcoat, slightly flared 28-inch waist trousers and a wide-lapelled jacket – was purchased for just $100 off the rack at the time, and was designed by the brand Leading Male.
Now, however, it is expected to fetch up to $250,000.
The suit will go up for auction at Julien's Auctions, with the black polyester shirt Travolta wore with it and a bespoke slimline mannequin. As if that wasn't enough, the suit is said to feature the leading man's sweat marks.
Julien's Auctions is, itself, a Hollywood institution, having been the auction house responsible for some of the most headline-grabbing celebrity estate sales in history. in 1999, Marilyn Monroe's "nude" dress was sold by the auction house for a record $4.81 million.
Disco dancing under movie lights would have been exhausting work, so two identical suits were used, with Travolta changing from one into the other while the sweaty one dried out. That, the experts say, is how they can prove the suit is authentic.
Speaking to The Guardian, Martin J Nolan, the executive director of Julien's Auctions, said: "It was incredibly hot during filming, so you can still see the sweat marks around his waist [on the suit to be auctioned]. We never wash memorabilia. People want the stains, the DNA, particularly when a suit like this one hasn't been auctioned before."
This is the latest in a slew of high-profile celebrity estate sales, including a 2020 sale of actress Doris Day's items that wildly surpassed expectations: though expected to fetch $600,00, it brought in a whopping $4 million.
