Say you’re watching Will & Grace and the shirt Will is wearing strikes your fancy, you just have to have Grace’s shoes, or you cannot get your eyes off Jack’s blue vintage sofa. Where to start?
There are a few shops in the greater Los Angeles area and cities like London that sell items worn by characters in famous TV shows. But obviously, online is your best bet. For instance, every now and then e-Bay auctions props or clothes used in TV series or movies. But chances are very very slim that they happen to sell Grace’s shoes or Jack’s sofa.
A few online outlets and initiatives claim they can help you find pretty much any item seen on TV. They must be in frequent touch with set designers, stylists and prop masters in Hollywood to live up to this, or they might just be promising more than they can live up to. Let’s put a few of them to the test.
First of is seenon.com. If you’ve seen it on TV, in a movie, or on a movie star; there’s a chance they know where to find it. A true pity is that they focus mainly on clothes and accessories and less on decorative items and furniture. However, if you are into fashion, this site is a true treasure chest. You can look up pretty much any show and then browse articles per character. Grace Adler has over 50 pairs of shoes on here.
They do have information on Jack’s blue sofa though.
Jack's apartment in Will & Grace
The sofa is Arne Jacobsen’s Swan Sofa, actually designed in 1958. The entire set, including the two chairs, are part of that line. Numerous shops sell this design classic, yet the shop seenon.com links to seems to be sold out. But have a look in Google and you should be able to score one near your home. Further to this sofa, they only offer furniture for three movies. Sex and the City, The Princess Diaries and License to Wed.
Another website is Famous Fashions, again focusing mainly, if not solely, on clothing and accessories. And the Club World, the US TV network and home to shows like 90210, Gossip Girl and Supernatural will soon launch a feature, Style, where viewers can find shopping information on items worn in the show.
To find fashion donned by the stars proves to be not too hard. To find out where to buy their character’s sofa or vase seems to be a lot harder.
Backlot props, a website auctioning off and listing props used in movies and TV shows offers hope. The orange chairs used in the movie Dukes of Hazard as seen in the below frame can be found through here for example.
Orange brawl bar chairs
Backlotprops.com
Star Wars fans can get their kicks on this site. The aptly called Movieprop.com features many links to certified replica dealers of masks and swords used in this epic science fiction flick and all the episodes and sequels to follow.
Yet for a simple old fashioned guy like myself who likes to know where to buy Will’s stunning faux-antique secretary desk as pictured in the image below, it is a grim grim world.
Will's living room on display in the library of Emerson college where W&G creator Max Mutchnick was a student
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