If I could dress like one person for the rest of my life, it’d be Fran Fine, heroine of the ’90s sitcom The Nanny. Everything she wore was colorful and perfectly coordinated, from the top of her bouffant to the tip of her slingbacks—whether she was in fruit-appliquéd Moschino, rainbow Todd Oldham, or minis from Courrèges, Anna Sui, or Jean Paul Gaultier.
Lucky for me, thanks to fan accounts like What Fran Wore, Fine’s wardrobe from the show isn’t hard to hunt down. (Other pages, such as The O.C. Fashion Account and Every Outfit on Sex and the City, provide a similar service for other stylish series.)
Katherine Garay, founder of the vintage business and Instagram account Cinema Spells, regularly sources pieces from Dolce & Gabbana, Betsey Johnson, Burberry, and other brands seen in shows and films like Gilmore Girls and 13 Going on 30. For her, the secret is just having a very good memory.
“The work of costume designers and the visual language of film and television has left a strong imprint on me over time,” she says. “Little by little, I kept spotting familiar silhouettes, prints, and garments in real life. I’d be thrifting and suddenly recognize something I’d seen on screen years ago.” Being based in Southern California has also helped to build up her collection: “Now, I have both identical vintage finds and studio-sourced pieces that were likely backups or alternates used in production,” she explains.
The skirt Jennifer Coolidge wears during the famous bend-and-snap scene? Cinema Spells found it.