CHICAGO — Two Hollywood dresses last sold at auction in 2017 met contrasting fortunes when they returned to the block as part of the Freeman’s Hindman Spring Fashion and Accessories sale on March 12. Judy Garland’s dress from In The Good Old Summertime made a handsome return, but Mae West’s Elsa Schiaparelli gown from Every Day’s a Holiday fell short.

The cherry red number worn by Judy Garland as Veronica Fisher in the 1949 MGM musical In the Good Old Summertime had last sold at Julien’s Auctions in November 2017, when it hammered for $10,000. Designed by MGM’s costume supervisor Irene Maud Lentz (known simply as Irene), Garland had worn it while singing I Don’t Care. Retaining an MGM dry cleaning label, it was sold with three black and white stills of Garland wearing the dress alongside her co-star Van Johnson. Estimated in Chicago at $6,000-$8,000, instead it hammered at $27,500 ($36,025 with buyer’s premium).

Mae West wore several Elsa Schiaparelli gowns while playing the role of con artist Peaches O’Day in the 1937 Paramount Pictures film Every Day’s a Holiday. The story goes that Schiaparelli had been reluctant to travel to Hollywood and instead worked on the costumes by using a dress form of West’s body. Schiaparelli had been so impressed with the dress form’s curves that it became the inspiration for her next perfume bottle.

This particular black velvet gown with an oversize fur collar and hem had sold for $40,000 as part of the October 2017 auction of personal property from Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds conducted by Profiles in History. Recreating the fevered competition of that celebrity sale provided difficult: this time, the dress brought $14,000 ($18,340 with buyer’s premium).