Some reel hand-me-downs: family business that sells castoff costumes from film and TV shows now works to take its entire business out of the store and online. (Small Business).

REMEMBER that cute little blouse Helen Hunt wore as she was falling for Jack Nicholson in "As Good As It Gets"?

How about Peg's leopard print miniskirt, the one Katey Sagal wore on "Married With Children"?

Well, you can buy them both from Reel Clothes & Props in North Hollywood, a business Elaine Vollmer started in 1981 after she was laid off from her studio job as a location auditor.

Reel Clothes sells clothing and props from film, TV and cable production companies directly to the public on a consignment basis. The, high-end products worn by stars, such as Omar Sharif's outfit from "The 13th Warrior" ($500) or the tan trench coat Robert DeNiro wore in "Ronin" ($950), are all in a warehouse behind the store. Up at the front, customers will find great bargains on designer ware, shoes and jewelry, all worn by actors and extras.

Vollmer says she got the idea for the business when she saw racks and racks of stock clothing from finished films dumped in warehouses and left to rot.

"I couldn't believe it," she said. "They'd finish filming a movie and the entire wardrobe from the film would just be stored there forever."

The studios were happy to let her pick up the clothing, particularly after they learned there might be a market for it and they stood to make a little money on otherwise useless goods.

This is pure gravy for the studios because, once the movie or the TV show is over, the clothes have done their job," said Vollmer. "They don't use them again except for re-shoots."

Space is also an issue.

Donna Pearlmutter, manager of production for HBO Films, said she's been doing business with Reel Clothes for the last 15 years.

"We simply don't have storage here for all of that wardrobe," she said, "so having Reel Clothes sell these items for us gives us a perfect opportunity to unload them, but not just unload them, we recycle them."

Other clients include Universal Pictures, Sony Studios and Paramount Pictures.

Vollmer declined to say how much Reel Clothes makes off each sale and, on the advice of her accountant, refused to divulge revenue figures.

"As soon as I started the business I thought it was doomed," said Vollmer. "There just wasn't that much interest in collecting this stuff."

Then came Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe and other restaurant chains offering entertainment themes and collectibles as decor: Elvis Presley's leather jacket, Billy Idol's motorcycle, Jimmy Hendrix's guitars.

"Planet Hollywood came along and we started getting interest from them for some of our clothing and props," said Vollmer. "But they also managed to spark interest by the public. People started getting interested in collecting themselves."

The high-ticket items all come with original wardrobe tags and certificates of authenticity.

And, like the studios, Vollmer has space problems. To get the "stars"' clothes, she typically has to take the entire stock from a TV show or film. That could mean a rack full of white dress shirts dyed blue for a prison scene on "Family Law" or a boatload of "Baywatch" bikinis.

But stock is constantly rotated -- about once a month -- as new "shoots" come in. What doesn't sell after it's been marked down, sometimes as low as $1, goes to charity.

There's another outlet for Reel Clothes product Vollmer didn't consider 20 years ago. How could she? The Internet was still just a two-way communications vehicle for university professors. Today, online sales represent about 90 percent of her annual revenues.

Customers from every corner of the country and as far away as Japan and China are ordering stars' clothing and other items from Reel Clothes & Props.com, an online business Vollmer's daughter Holly and her husband Leonard launched a couple of years ago.

"It's the primary source of our high-end sales because it's the primary source for collectors looking for new items," said Holly.

In addition to their own site, Reel Clothes also puts items up for sale on Ebay. That, in turn, drives customers back to their site.

One day Vollmer and her partners would like to shut the shop down and run the business strictly online. Cataloging a constantly changing inventory is the big challenge there.

"We don't think we'll get there for a very long time, but eventually we see it as the way to go," said Vollmer.

Last year, they landed a loan to buy a 300,000-square-foot building and move the company from Ventura Boulevard to North Hollywood -- a stone's throw away from Warner Bros. and Disney, a couple of their biggest clients.

There are other emerging challenges, however. Some studios have caught on to the fact there's money to be made off their props and star-wear. FOX-TV, for example, now sells its own wardrobes and props to the public. But setting up a separate department to do what Reel Clothes does is costly and, for now, it's keeping some of the bigger studios from following suit.

"Think about it, they'd have to hire a whole team to do what we do for them," said Vollmer. "And even if they did, they couldn't sell it all. They've eventually come to us."

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Reel Clothes Props

Year Founded: 1981

Core Business: Consignment sales of clothing and props used in TV and film production

Employees in 1981: 1

Employees in 2002: 5

Goal: To take the business completely online

Driving Force: Fascination with costumes worn by movie and TV stars