Margot Robbie wore a wedding dress in The Wolf of Wall Street that was created using vintage garments from a historic shop in Vigo, Spain. Spanish fashion designer Lorenzo Caprile crafted the bridal gown for the 2013 Martin Scorsese film by incorporating decorative elements taken from five dresses originally sold by Las tres BBB, a century-old Galician store.
The connection between Hollywood and the Galician port city began when Carlos Pinilla, then a professor at the Higher School of Dramatic Arts of Galicia, discovered stock preserved by the shop. According to Spanish newspaper Faro de Vigo, Pinilla regularly bought late 1970s and 1980s dresses from the retailer for less than 30 euros each to design theatrical costumes.
Las tres BBB opened its doors in 1915 at number 7 Policarpo Sanz Street in Vigo. Operating across four floors, the store became one of the city's most modern commercial establishments and was a pioneer in offering ready-to-wear wedding gowns. The business remained open for nearly a century before closing permanently in 2014.
How Galician dresses reached Hollywood
Before the store closed, an acquaintance of Pinilla working with Caprile informed the professor that the designer had received an urgent commission for Scorsese's production. Costume designer Sandy Powell had asked Caprile to produce a wedding gown set in the style of the 1990s.
Pinilla recalled that his friend suggested packing several dresses to send to Caprile's workshop, prompting him to ship five garments. Caprile had less than a week to complete the dress before filming. He removed hundreds of decorative applications from the five Vigo garments to construct the finished gown.
In the movie, Robbie plays Naomi Lapaglia, the second wife of financial fraudster Jordan Belfort, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Robbie wore Caprile's custom dress during the wedding sequence. The actress did not try on the gown until the day of the shoot, as all prior fitting tests were conducted using a body double.
Preserving a century of fashion history
The relationship between Pinilla and the historic shop continued after the costume was created. When the Ferro family prepared to close Las tres BBB in 2014, they agreed to sell much of the remaining inventory to the drama professor at a reduced price.
Pinilla purchased approximately 400 garments, including wedding gowns, communion dresses, and bridesmaid attire, to use in future costume projects.
The collection was eventually relocated far from Vigo to Manzanares in the province of Ciudad Real, central Spain. Pinilla stored the garments in a business owned by his family that sells agricultural spare parts, which was the only site with sufficient space. He explained that mechanical bearings and oil seals now share storage space with bridal gowns and communion headpieces, separated only by a drywall partition.
