Super interesting.
Marilyn Monroe’s Two Secrets
What I learned about the icon by folding her capri pants.
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Upon her death, Marilyn’s personal effects had been boxed up and placed in storage, and there they had remained for 37 years. I was present in the Christie’s offices the day they were unpacked.
Paging Tutankhamen!
Unpacking Marilyn’s possessions was a surreal and extraordinary experience. I touched her Pucci blouses. I folded her black capri pants. I found myself holding crackly, dried-up old shopping bags—JAX of Beverly Hills—filled with stockings, slips, and brassieres. I touched hairbrushes with blonde hairs in them. I sniffed the Mexican wrap sweater she wore in the famous beach photo shoot, and detected a whiff of perfume.
The process of cataloguing and displaying Marilyn’s bits took months. During this time I learned some crazily illuminating stuff about the breathy blond bombshell. Brace yourself for some next-level revelations.
Right away, I discovered that Marilyn was shockingly and unimaginably slender. She was sort of like Kate Moss but fleshier on top. Didn’t see that coming, did you?
When it came to finding mannequins to fit her dresses, I simply couldn’t. M.M.’s drag was too small for the average window dummy. Smaller “petite” mannequins existed, but I could not bring myself to place Marilyn’s iconic garments on these perky fiberglass dollies. The frocks seemed too important and historic. For the public installation I decided to give them the Shroud of Turin treatment.”
read the rest here;
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/doonan/2012/01/was_marilyn_monroe_fat_her_secrets_revealed_.html
I always tell people that vintage sizes are not the same as today’s sizes. “But Marilyn Monroe was a size 12!” A vintage size 12 is actually our equivalent of XS/S - bust 30”, waist 25”, hips 33”. They changed the sizing measurements in the 1970s. Now, I’m definitely not saying that Marilyn’s measurements were exactly that (because she seems rather more busty than just 30 inches), but that is the norm of a vintage size 12.
Modern society has quite a few blatant misconceptions about clothing and people of the past. (Ever thought that red was only worn in the Victorian era by prostitutes?) As a student of history’s fashion, I prefer not to continue the misunderstandings! This article was great evidence of that as well as shedding light on who Marilyn Monroe was once off camera. Love it!
(via lipstainedgarterbelts)
