My Holy Grail Jewel: Daryl Hannah's Mermaid Necklace in 'Splash'
Louche and chaotic—the seafaring accessory captured at least one 9-year-old's heart.
The chaotic charm necklace Daryl Hannah wore as naive mermaid ‘Madison’ in the classic 1984 movie Splash was the first piece of jewelry I ever truly coveted.
I was 9 years old when the Ron Howard-directed film came out, and the deep-sea accessory, dripping with ancient coins, shells, and gemstones and culminating in a brass lion’s head medallion, felt deliciously eccentric and nonconformist (characteristics I longed to reflect as a counter culture-obsessed kid growing up in the bland D.C. suburbs).
Hannah’s entire Splash look, including her koi-inspired tail, was brought to life by a team led by late British costume designer May Routh, who began her career as a fashion illustrator for style publications including Vogue and Elle in the 1950s, but pivoted to costume design in the 1960s when photography became the standard in magazines.
But it’s unclear if Routh was directly responsible for the necklace. The maker of Hannah’s extraordinary mermaid tail in the film, artisan Thom Shouse, presented the necklace to the Walt Disney archives, where it lives to this day. So maybe it was his creation? That detail may be lost forever—Routh, who more famously created the costumes for canon films including Being There and The Man Who Fell to Earth (she dressed David Bowie as an alien!), died in 2022 at the age of 87.
The pirate-worthy necklace helped propel the film’s plot: Mermaid Madison trades the jewel for an elaborate park fountain as a gift for Tom Hank’s character, Alan, who’d always loved it.