During the Celebration of Life held for Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna on Monday, Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, gave a heartbreaking speech eulogizing her lost loved ones. At one point, she spoke about her late husband’s penchant for really excellent Valentine’s Day gifts, one of which included the dress Rachel McAdams wore in the 2004 romance The Notebook. After the Celebration was held, the film’s costume designer, Karyn Wagner, spoke to Access about the trouble Bryant must have gone through to get his hands on that specific dress.
“When I finish a film, my team and I, we inventory everything, we put it in boxes, and we never see it again, Wagner said. “So I don’t know how Kobe even tracked this dress down. He has to have spent a lot of time and a lot of effort. He was that good and he was that determined to show his wife how much he loved her.”
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Wanger also admitted that she has “been contacted so many times over the years,” by people trying to buy the same garment.
While Vanessa Bryant previously mentioned the dress in a 2013 Instagram post, she brought it up again during the Celebration of Life on Monday.
“He planned special anniversary trips and a special traditional gift every year of our marriage,” she told the crowd. “He gifted me the actual notebook and the blue dress Rachel McAdams wore in The Notebook movie.”
Since The Notebook hit theaters, the dress, which was also featured on the film’s poster, became synonymous with the film. Which was something Wagner admitted she picked up on very early on during production.
“I knew it was going to be one of the tentpoles, if you will, of the film,” Wagner told The Hollywood Reporter. “I spent some time drawing what I thought both reflected the era and reflected who [Allie] is supposed to become and the woman she wants to be, which were in direct conflict. We wanted to communicate with [the] audience why she woke up that morning and picked out that blue dress. She wants to say something to him. The color of that dress is about hope.”
Following the Celebration on Monday, Vanessa Bryant shared a photo on Instagram of soccer star Sydney Leroux’s new tattoo of the number two. It was the basketball number of Gianna Bryant, which Leroux got to honor her memory.
Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were killed along with seven other victims in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 near Calabasas, CA.
