John Travolta’s ‘Saturday Night Fever’ Suit Is Up for Auction

Tony wore his signature white polyester suit in several key sequences, including throughout the climactic disco-dancing competition he ultimately won with Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) as well as when his friend Bobby (Barry Miller) fell to his death.

This custom three-piece suit was made by Leading Male, then of Kings Highway, Brooklyn. It consists of a white jacket with wide-stitched trimmed lapels, satin lining on the interior with a rear double vent, and two oversized side pockets; a vest and flared trousers made from the same fabric blend; and a black polyester Pascal of Spain dress shirt. The bottom of the shirt is custom-modified by production with elasticated fabric and stitched directly into the pants to create a single-piece jumpsuit, allowing Travolta greater mobility without the risk of the shirt popping out during dance sequences.

As many of the film's most pivotal scenes took place at the 2001 Odyssey discotheque, it is difficult to establish definitive screen-matches to most of the characters' costumes, props, or set pieces. However, all elements of the jacket - including its custom-tailored, distinctively-shaped pockets, darts, and stitch lines - are exactingly consistent with the suit Tony wore onscreen. This is the finest Tony Manero suit from Saturday Night Fever still known to exist, with the jumpsuit-style modification believed to be unique to this example.

Tony's white dancing suit is among the most recognizable costumes in cinematic history, having appeared in many of the film's most widely-distributed promotional images, including its hugely popular one-sheet. Upon release, Saturday Night Fever became a cultural phenomenon, breaking multiple financial records to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of the 1970s and inspiring a wave of imitations of Tony's dancing costume in disco clubs around the world. The Bee Gees' soundtrack for the film also became one of the best-selling albums in history. For his performance as Tony, Travolta received his first Academy Award® nomination and was named the Best Actor of the year by the National Board of Review.

Handwritten in blue ink on the interior lining is "To Gene, So here's to a classic, your friend, John Travolta". The "Gene" in question is Gene Siskel, one-half of the legendary film-reviewing duo Siskel & Ebert. Siskel originally bought the suit at a charity auction in 1979. The beloved critic considered this suit the most prized possession in his collection prior to selling it as lot 155 in Christie's Television and Film Memorabilia and Posters auction held June 28, 1995.