Friday, 3 August 2012

Marilyn Monroe, already a film and cultural icon, emerges as fashion star on anniversary of her death

unday marks 50 years since the death of Marilyn Monroe, who a half century later remains the ultimate icon of popular culture. Monroe, legendary for her calculated design of wholesome goodness and sex goddess - going from brunette pin-up girl Norma Jeane Baker (born Mortenson) to the silver screen's blonde of all blondes - has had her life, loves and death endlessly studied, chronicled, investigated, dissected and put back together in books, movies and television. "No one since Marilyn has quite mixed sex and fashion like she did," says Christopher Nickens, co-author with George Zeno of the newly published "Marilyn in Fashion" (Running Press, 2012). The dress billowed above a New York subway grate in "The Seven Year Itch" revealing her panties, much to the disappointment and anger of her husband, baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Never snobbish about clothes, Monroe mixed off-the-rack outfits and costumes from her movies with selected high-end labels, Nickens said. Monroe wore Ferragamo shoes, J.C. Penney denim, sweaters and carried Louis Vuitton handbags. Travilla, Louis, Dorothy Jeakins, Eloise Jenssen and others who created memorable movie looks for her, including Travilla's hot pink strapless number for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." [...] Monroe's most loved garment was her terry-cloth bathrobe, Nickens says. She played to her curves with form-fitting silhouettes "instead of the styles of the time that included layered petticoats over voluminous skirts topped by Peter Pan collars," he says. For more than 25 years, Nickens has written about Hollywood legends, including biographies of Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood and Elizabeth Taylor, who never had much of an opinion about fashion, he says. A: Because she got such a reaction. Once she decided to start acting, the sex appeal kicked in and that was the big difference. Back then no one bothered to ask, "Who are you wearing?" They were just so stunned by her looks, by her beautiful body.

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