The Tamesis
It took feverish ambition and the cunning of a studio executive to transform orphan Norma Jeane Mortensen into Marilyn Monroe. As Marilyn, she would be the ultimate bombshell, dazzling on screen and her image forever seared in the public imagination. With her platinum blonde curls and heavy eyelids, she entered the arts and graced many runways posthumously. Now, on the 100th anniversary of the actor’s birth, we’re taking a look at how designers can borrow from her star quality.
An AI search revealed that to a bloodless machine, Monroe’s face and hair were her most important features. This is the kind of unmistakable face that Andy Warhol interpreted—both as a silk-screened artwork and reinterpreted in his own photographic portraits of Marilyn—and adapted again and again by designers. The most famous was created by Gianni Versace in 1990 and later reissued by Donatella Versace in 2017 for a new generation. In a menswear collection built around “creative provocateurs,” Dries Van Noten, of all people, plastered blown-up photos of Monroe on T-shirts, button-downs and jackets. Many others (including Jean-Charles de Castelbajac) could not resist the temptation to wear portrait gowns bearing that instantly recognizable face. Meanwhile, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are Marilyn’s most ardent fashion fans, and to prove it they have launched at least three collections based on her. Perhaps their wittiest, in spring 1992, the designers referenced a revenge dress made from burlap potato bags that the actor wore in response to derogatory comments about her style.
The likes of Thierry Mugler and Alexander McQueen have iterated on Monroe’s stage costumes, especially the infamous white slip dress seven year itch dresser looks Gentlemen prefer blondes. The most abstract take on Marilyn’s look came from Jean Paul Gaultier, who in 1984 (before Madonna) designed a tapered bra with cartoonish proportions (the actor made the most of 1950s silhouettes), proportions that, in their view, were as exaggerated as the Monroe myth, which would only intensify over time.
