Wrap

The fraternity sweatshirts worn in the bloody scenes of “Scream 2” go for $25. Sixty bucks will get you Amanda’s green business suit from “Melrose Place.” And a bikini from the sexy sands of “Baywatch” can be snatched up for a mere $15. It’s A Wrap, a used clothing store in Burbank, takes second-hand duds to a new level. The store gets its inventories from the wardrobe departments of about 100 TV and film production companies and sells the clothing to a devoted group of customers who often are as interested in the stars who wore them as the clothing itself. “What drew us to the place was that they had the wedding dress Cheryl Ladd wore when she played Grace Kelly in a movie for television,” said Margaret Cali, 58, of Pasadena, who has been shopping at the store since it opened in 1981. “I have a lot of clothing from ‘Beverly Hills 90210.’ It’s so fun to think that I can go into my closet and wear the same clothes the stars are wearing.” The clothing used in these shows seldom is worn more than once. Some outfits may not be worn at all if the scene is cancelled or changed. And once filming is completed, production companies don’t have any simple way to dispose of the garments. That’s where It’s A Wrap co-owners Jan Hallman Dion and her daughter Tiara Hallman come in. They carry most of the clothing on consignment, sharing half the proceeds with the production companies. When the production companies insist on selling the clothing outright, Dion and Hallman pay 50 cents on the dollar. “They make a lot more money if they put the clothes on consignment,” said Hallman, who manages the store and does most of the buying. “It is much better for both of us if everything is done that way.” For production companies and studios, It’s a Wrap provides an alternative to storing the clothing, donating it to charity or selling it off to a liquidator. A large wardrobe from a soap opera can bring in $200,000, putting $100,000 back into the studio coffers. That’s far more than a liquidator would pay for the same lot, studio executives said. “The production companies are always happy to get the wardrobes off their hands,” said Hallman, who was decked out in a hot pink suit from “Central Park West,” a TV show that was cancelled. “It is an asset just sitting there after the production wraps up. They don’t have time to deal with selling it off, so we do it for them. We make it very easy for them. We also make them a lot more money than they were getting in the past.” “We would literally have trailers full of wardrobe that we didn’t have any use for,” said Victor Salant, a production controller at Viacom Productions, who has sold off wardrobes from “Perry Mason,” “Diagnosis Murder” and “Bedtime Stories.” “(The store) gets it off our hands. It is definitely an advantage to get some of the money back we invested in the wardrobe.” Dion got the idea for the store in 1980 while working as a purchaser for CBS. She was asked to help auction off costumes from “The Muppet Movie.” When liquidators carried away the whole lot for $1,200, Dion realized just how profitable reselling it could be. The next year, she quit her CBS job and opened her first shop, The Retake Room in Studio City. “I just didn’t want to go back to working for someone else,” Dion said. “That’s how it began and it’s getting bigger all the time.” In November 1991, the store moved to a larger location in Burbank. Hallman said she and her mother wanted to be closer to all of the studios and needed more space for the new inventory they were acquiring. The current store measures 7,000 square feet of selling space with a 3,000-square-foot stockroom. Last year, sales reached $1 million, according to the owners. Eight part-timers and one full-time employee oversee the 300 items that come into the store each day. The garments, which have been dry cleaned before they leave the studios, are then priced and labeled to identify the show from which they came. Hallman researches the original retail price of each garment. If she can’t get the set costume designers to estimate the item’s worth, Hallman will call stores like Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Macys. Once she has a ballpark for the retail cost, Hallman sets her selling price. Those prices can range from $650 for a Gucci suit from “General Hospital” to skirts, blouses, pants and jackets from “Sunset Beach” for $35 to $100. A pair of jeans from “Seinfeld” might go for $30. Robert McCraken is one customer who keeps coming back. “I have a whole closet full of It’s A Wrap clothing,” he said. “I am addicted to the store. It’s a sickness.” Hallman said there are plans to open an additional location on the Westside or in Old Town Pasadena within a year. Before she expands, Hallman said she will have to computerize her inventory so she can better track the merchandise she carries and sells. That process has already begun. “We never stop working,” said Hallman. “We are constantly going at it.”