Official ABBA Costume Replicas - A Study on Accuracy

As you all know, I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to ABBA costumes.  Since I started my sewing journey in 2011, my goal was to recreate for my dolls as many ABBA costumes as possible, as accurately as possible.  As someone who is not a professional and is limited by my skill set and abilities, that task has not been an easy one and try as I might, I don't think I'll ever be able to achieve 100% accuracy, but I do the best and I can and I accept where I am unable to achieve a better result. 

Examples of so-called "ABBA costumes" 

I can't remember exactly when, but I remember when ABBA the Museum started selling ABBA costumes.  It had me super excited, because it meant people didn't have to rely on those weird so-called ABBA costumes that look nothing like what ABBA wore.  If this was made by ABBA's official museum, surely they would be as accurate (and hopefully high quality) as can be.  

 I guess one thing to consider when selling replicas of ABBA's costumes is how practical do you want them to be.  Maybe not everyone wants to go around wearing cat dresses and kimonos that are rather short and not overly practical.  So it didn't bother me too much when ABBA the Museum released official Cat Dresses where they sit a bit longer, and can be worn more as an actual dress rather than a very, very short dress.  The most important thing was that the cat on the front was accurate, which it is.  Unfortunately the cats have been scaled up to fit the larger size, so if you wanted to cut the cat dresses and add slits to the sides for the purpose of accuracy, it would look a bit off, assuming that would bother you liked it would bother me haha.  But all in all, it looks nice.  

A comparison of the ABBA the Museum cat dresses vs. Agnetha and Frida's cat dresses.

But how then am I supposed to feel about official replicas as sold at ABBA the Museum, that are seemingly intentionally made to be not accurate?

In 2015, ABBA the Museum also began selling replicas of ABBA's kimonos.  Unlike ABBA's original kimonos, they chose to make them more in the style of a traditional Japanese kimono in terms of length, and does it bother me slightly?  Yeah, but overall it was quite exciting to me as I had been attempting yet again to recreate ABBA's kimonos, and figured I could use the nice, clear images of the costumes for my recreations!  Boy was I surprised when I was compiling all my reference photos and noticed that the designs did not match up with the designs on ABBA's kimonos.  It simply didn't match up.  

For reference, this is what the placement of Agnetha's original kimono is

And this is my rendering of what I believe to be an accurate rendition of Agnetha's kimono designs. (I drew these designs up back in 2020 when i was working on my doll kimonos.  As far as I can tell, they are as accurate as possible based on all my reference images, but I can't guarantee 100% accuracy. Feel free to use them as reference for your own kimono remakes if you want!)

And when you compare it to the museum's kimono, you can see that they simply used the design on the front of Agnetha's left sleeve and used just that rather than use all of them for some reason.

They did the same with Frida's kimono, taking the design from her front right sleeve and using that instead of all the other designs.

 

 

 

And when Bjorn and Benny's costumes were added to the collection, same issues happened.

Instead of utilizing all of the designs, they used the design from the Front Left of Benny's kimono, albeit they did put it in the correct place at least.

And for Bjorn's costume, they used the design from the front right of his kimono, but it on the bottom right, and then made a new design of 4 flowers where the bottom right of his kimono clearly has only 3.

Another costume remake that they sell at ABBA the Museum is a replica of the cape Agnetha and Frida wore in the beginning of the 1979/80 tour during Voulez-Vous. They title it the polar cape and state that it is a replica.  Because of that claim that it is a replica, I was enticed to buy it, but after looking at the preview picture, I was again surprised to find that it in fact was not 100% accurate. For some reason they shifted the design over so it's off center.  interestingly, they had an earlier version of the costume that wasn't shifted, but when they released it with a better fabric, they shifted it. I have no idea why.  I thought that was the only issue, and ultimately decided I could live with the simple off-centered-ness, and I will say it feels so nice and drapes really nicely.  Although, considering I am quite short and Agnetha and Frida are a lot taller than I am, it is rather big on me haha.

 It even helped me to then look for a good satin to use for my remake of the capes for my dolls.  However, what would you know, when I was working on my doll costumes, I discovered yet another inaccuracy.

A rendering of the ABBA the Museum cape,

And a rendering of the actual cape.  Hopefully you can see the difference.  (Also I have a permanent warp in my eye due to eye-issues, and OMG drawing this with the grid lines on my art program was so difficult haha)

Now don't get me wrong, everything that I have ever bought from ABBA the Museum has been exceptional quality. Expensive, as well, but the quality makes it feel worth it.  And I really do appreciate the effort to make replicas of ABBA's costumes, but my question is, why are they choosing to make the costumes inaccurate?  Especially considering at the ABBA Voyage webstore, they're also selling replicas of Agnetha and Frida's capes from the opening of the Voyage show, and as far as I can tell, while certainly not as extravagant as the designs are printed on rather than embroidered and embellished like the actual things, they are seemingly almost identical to the ABBA-tars costumes.  (Granted I still haven't been to the show, so I can't necessarily verify that at this time.)

I also have these capes and they are so fun and swooshy, and because I enjoyed wearing them so much, that's what convinced me to buy the Polar Cape replica despite its flaws haha.

I guess, all this to say, perhaps it's just me being a perfectionist, and others aren't bothered by this, but I just hope that maybe ABBA the Museum will consider updating their costume replicas further, and producing an even more accurate result.  I really really enjoy their products, (and I just saw that they made a bucket hat and other accessories using the pattern from Benny's fur jacket as seen in the Mamma Mia! music video - that is absolutely adorable!), I just want to see more accuracy, especially where they have the means to compare to the actual costumes as they have most of them on display at the museum. 

And they clearly don't mind making updates, as they already released a new version Agnetha Waterloo beanie that is I think more accurate in terms of pattern.  It doesn't have sequins glued on, like you can do with the original crochet kit, instead having tiny clear sequins that don't resemble Agnetha's original beanie, but it seems to fit my head better than the crochet kit one (but that the crochet kit fitting weird could be due to user error as I crocheted it myself.)

On a semi-related note - I came across a dress on Thred-Up that looked quite similar to Agnetha's Fernando dress.  It's quite a bit shorter than Agnetha's actual dress sitting just above my knees, and obviously it's not meant to be a replica at all, but I decided to get it and have been calling it my Fernando Dupe dress.  The brand is Misslook, and I had to add a lining into it because it was way too sheer originally.  But I have been enjoying it a lot. :3