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Like Ryan Gosling ’s character Noah Calhoun from The Notebook, Kobe Bryant also went the extra mile for his love. While remembering her late husband at his and daughter Gianna’s celebration of life service on Monday, Vanessa Bryant opened up about a romantic gift the NBA star had given her one year for Valentine’s Day —the actual notebook, as well as blue dress and shoes that Rachel McAdams wore in the 2004 romance film, The Notebook. As it turns out, acquiring the famous dress wasn’t easy. The movie’s costume designer Karyn Wagner told E! News , “[Kobe] had to go through a lot of trouble to get his hands on it."
Karyn was unaware of the whereabouts of the custom dress prior to Vanessa’s eulogy. "I had zero idea. When I was finished with the movie, I put the dress in a box and it went into storage," she told The Hollywood Reporter . The designer was emotional upon hearing Vanessa discuss the sentimental gift and how it factored into her own love story. "I was already crying and when I heard that, I started crying even harder. It was just so beautiful," Karyn told E! News. "I just want to say how happy I am to have brought some joy to this beautiful couple. Listening to her eulogy, I was so honored. I am so sorry for her loss and I wish her all the healing light in the world." Karyn described the dress to The Hollywood Reporter as “one of the tentpoles” of the beloved movie, adding that “the color of that dress is about hope.”
During the memorial at the Staples Center on February 24, Vanessa admitted that her husband, who was killed last month in a helicopter accident, “was truly the romantic one” in their relationship. “He gave to me the actual notebook and the blue dress Rachel McAdams wore in The Notebook movie,” she shared. “When I asked him why he chose the blue dress, he said it was because it’s the scene when Allie comes back to Noah. We had hoped to grow old together like the movie.” Vanessa continued, “We really had an amazing love story. We loved each other with our whole beings, two perfectly imperfect people making a beautiful family and raising our sweet and amazing girls."