Olivia Newton-John's Sexy Grease Pants Now Belong to…Spanx

I am but a lowly blogger who considers the name-brand pasta sauce a luxury, so I do not quite understand rich people’s obsession with buying film memorabilia. With that in mind, I suppose it makes sense that the Spanx founder is now the proud owner of Olivia Newton-John’s skintight Grease pants, as they are clearly the original Spanx.

Women’s Wear Daily reports that Sara Blakely bought the pants at a charity auction for $162,000, which is slightly more expensive than the average pair of Spanx, though not really by much. Blakely, who founded the famed shapewear company in 1998, told CBS This Morning that she’d long been a fan of Newton-John’s iconic movie look, hence the purchase; she also procured Newton-John’s Pink Ladies jacket.

Per WWD:

“I have been the biggest fan of Olivia since I was a little girl, since ‘Grease’ came out,” Blakely said in an interview on “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday. “My friend called me two days before the auction. I didn’t know it was happening and she said, ‘Sara, they’re putting the pants up, the outfit for charity,’ and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’ve got to try to get these.’”

Newton-John (who, it turns out, sang at Blakely’s wedding) seems equally pleased:

Newton-John put her whole Grease finale outfit up for auction last month, with proceeds going toward the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne, according to an ABC affiliate in Australia.

She told Reuters Television that the outfit was so tight, she had to be sewed into it. “The pants have a broken zip and I had to be stitched into them because they were made in the 50s,” she said. Now, those very pants will go on display at Spanx’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, ostensibly to serve as yet another reminder to Spanx employees that love is possible, provided you are unable to breathe.