Screen-used Autolycus ‘Grandma’ Disguise
I have a lot of things in my collections, but nothing quite like this. I want to talk a little bit about Autolycus’ ‘grandma’ disguise from the Season 3 episode Vanishing Act. This is the outfit that Autolycus uses to disguise himself after it is discovered that the Pax statue has been stolen. Of course, Xena sees right through him.
I have never been one to collect ‘clothing’. I have a myriad of set used weapons and armour- hell yes I love it! Bring them on! But not clothing. I am not sure why- maybe because they are hard to display? Or maybe it just feels weird to have someone’s clothes. I am not sure.
All of that went out the window when I saw this for sale not that long ago. What drew me to this piece is that it is a bridge between my two greatest collecting loves – set used props and Xena trading cards. And this item of clothing has such trading card history!
If you read this blog, you will know that the very first thing I ever collected was Xena trading cards and it is still something that I collect 15+ years later. It truly is my first collecting love and I will continue to pick up cards I don’t have whenever I can. Even back when they were in production they were very hard to find in Australia. The odd tobacconist would have some but that was about it. Maybe you could have got them from dealers? I am not sure, but if you could I didn’t know at the time. My dream is that one day I hope to have master sets (complete with all variants) for each set.
How does this relate back to this Autolycus grandma disguise costume? WELL.
This costume was given by the Xena set to the Rittenhouse trading card company for use during the production of subsequent trading card sets. They eventually used it when they manufactured their 2003 trading card set ‘The Quotable Xena: Warrior Princess’. This Quotable set featured a 6 card subset of autographed costume cards, one of which, was ‘Bruce Campbell as Autolycus in Vanishing Act’.
See where I am going with this!!
The shirt is the only part of the costume that was used to create the trading cards, and in 2021, an American trading card dealer obtained the rest of the costume. They decided to sell it on, and that’s where I was lucky enough to get my hands on it. 😈 Honestly, what are the odds of this thing sitting in a store-room and then after nearly 20 years finally resurfacing? 💜💜
The remainder of the costume has three parts- there is the skirt (with both an under-layer and an outer-layer), a sash belt and a shawl. It is heavier than you would expect! The image of the complete outfit is from the Rittenhouse company used for advertising the trading card set.
The skirt has a concealed zip and clasp at the back. It is heavier than you would expect! The skirt is made from a woven cotton and the sash is wool. The shawl is a printed fabric. To be honest, it is really well made for something that only gets a few minutes of screen time.
So that is it for me today guys. Take care! x