The famous gold lamé gown was designed by William Travilla for Marilyn Monroe to wear in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The dress was deemed too risqué by the censors and is only seen briefly from the back in a scene in which Marilyn dances with Charles Coburn.
âHowever, even with the censorsâ ban, this provocative dress was to boost Marilynâs popularity immenselyâŠTravillaâs incredible attention to detail and construction methods never failed to impress and this dress is no exception. Created out of a single complete circle of particular gold lamĂ© and sunburst-pleated, this dress was a designerâs dream. When you study the dress closely you can see that every pleat lines up perfectly along the back seam. It has two thin, flexible iron bars in a V-shape. starting at the waist and travelling up to the bust, thus moulding the dress to Marilynâs bodyâŠâ
âThe gold dress was so figure-hugging that Marilyn had to be sewn into itâŠMarilyn clearly loved the dress and she intended to wear it when accepting an award at the 1953 Photoplay Awards hosted at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.â
âIn the audience that evening was outspoken Joan Crawford whose obvious jealousy may well have been the reason for her unkind comment. âShe looks vulgar,â she was quoted as saying. However, Marilyn knew exactly what she was doing that night. She was the queen of self-publicity and knew exactly how to work the press and give her fans what they really wanted.â
âTravilla created three versions of the dress: one with a belt, one with four golden balls in the centre of the waist and another with a bowâŠMarilyn never wore the dress again after 1953, but Travilla used it for plenty of other stars. Jayne Mansfield wore it to the premiere of the 1957 film, The Spirit of St. Louis and Betty Grable wore the belted version in a TV special in 1954 called A Shower of Stars.â The dress was also worn by Marilyn Maxwell and a very different version of it was worn by Ginger Rogers, but no other star was able to wear that famous dress more beautifully or skillfully than the star it was created for.
~ Andrew Hansford, Dressing Marilyn: How a Hollywood Icon was Styled by William Travilla
