Whether fighting vampires or putting together a chic outfit, Buffy Summers always slayed, but unfortunately, star Sarah Michelle Gellar didn’t keep all of those iconic ’90s and ’00s looks.
“I have a couple of pieces, but we weren’t allowed to keep the wardrobe in those days,” Gellar, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her partnership with UScellular for the Global Day of Unplugging.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted on March 10, 1997, as a little midseason replacement TV show on The WB, and 27 years later, it’s still a cult hit. The fantasy show aired for seven seasons, spawned the spinoff Angel and still inspires new works (such as Audible’s Slayers, which reunited several cast members last fall). Buffy‘s success was initially a surprise, and now, the fact that her 14-year-old daughter Charlotte is embracing the same trends Buffy once donned has Gellar doing a double take.
“Isn’t that crazy?” the actress said. “When my daughter came back and she’s like, ‘Do you still have any chokers?’ I was like, ‘What?’ Or she’ll come out with the white T-shirt with the dress over it.”
Yet Charlotte won’t find too many Buffy wardrobe pieces in her mom’s closet. “I think growing up in New York City, I grew up in a small apartment, and so we didn’t have room,” Gellar explained to Us. “There was never storage. I never grew up with the idea of holding onto this stuff.”
Although she and husband Freddie Prinze Jr. (with whom she also shares son Rocky, 11) have more space now, the Wolf Pack alum is still trying to not hold onto too much.
“Even now, it’s funny, I recently did a big purge and I’ve been saving my purses and stuff for my daughter,” Gellar said. “But I’m like, ‘By the time she gets older, she doesn’t even going to want half my stuff.’ So I’m trying to figure out what to hold onto.”
Despite her city gal approach, the star said she was sure to keep one memorable piece in her closet. “Buffy’s dress at the end of the first season was based on a dress and Emmy dress that I wore, and I have that,” she shared.
The dress, which she wore as she accepted her Daytime Emmy Award in 1995 for her role on All My Children, even still fits. In 2020, the actress pulled the with a photo of herself wearing the gown.
“All dressed up and no where to go. ‘I say we party,’” she captioned the photo, quoting her character in the season 1 finale.
The clothing, however, will be all her kids get to see of the later BtVS seasons. “We skipped season 6 because they were really young,” Gellar said. “It was not appropriate.”
The Cruel Intentions star previously told Us that she let her daughter and son watch the early episodes of Buffy but eventually decided not to show them the darker parts.