#dressing marilyn

“To Billy, my love. Please dress me forever: I love you” - Marilyn.

Marilyn liked her costumes for Bus Stop, apart from the fishnet stockings. These Marilyn thought too perfect so she had them ripped and then deliberately  poorly repaired, as she felt Cherie would not have had money to spare for new fishnet stockings, nor would they have been readily available in the small town she was in. Marilyn also went through the wardrobe with photographer and close friend Milton Greene to select pieces that would aptly express the character of Cherie

In one instance William Travilla remembered grabbing a piece of remnant satin, cutting a strip about 30 cm (12 inches) wife, then draping it on the bias straight onto her nude body, to evoke an evening gown held together with a rhinestone brooch falling into cascades to the floor. She looked more sensuous than any woman on earth and she suddenly became the Marilyn Monroe the world knew. -Dressing Marilyn by Andrew Hansford with Karen Homer 

Marilyn unlike a lot of stars was not a clotheshorse and tended to wear the same clothing to a few occasions. On the left Marilyn wore the William Travilla dress with a tulle netting sash to the live television show, The Jack Benny Program, in September 1953, where she performed in a comedy sketch with Jack Benny and gave a rendition of "Bye Bye Baby." On the right Marilyn wore the dress with a satin sash to the premiere of How to Marry a Millionaire and its after-party at the director's house (Jean Negulesco) on November 4th, 1953. From Dressing Marilyn: The Embroidered Dress After six hours of preparation at Fox from William Travilla and her hairdresser and make-up artist, Marilyn arrived for the premiere of How to Marry a Millionaire in November 1953 wearing this dress borrowed from the studio and her own white Arctic fox stole. The dress is made up of a very sheer underdress with an overlay of hand-embroidered lace with hundreds of tiny hand-sewn crystals. The pleated satin train wraps from the right across the bust to the floor and the whole effect is truly stunning.

    During post-production of the movie a calendar hit the streets causing horror to the studio directors. Marilyn had posed nude for this calendar, entitled "Golden Dreams," in May 1949 after Fox did not renew her contract; she was out of work and desperately needed the money. Marilyn was paid a mere $50 for this shoot, which was the exact amount she need to get her impounded car released. When the calendar made its appearance several years later the studio went crazy; they thought they would lose all their investment in the movie. She was called to the studio and admitted she had done a calendar years before but argued how could it hurt? They said, "It can hurt!"       The one person it hurt the most was William Travilla, who, although the movie went ahead, had to completely redesign her costumes. His orders were simply: "Cover her up, we are not selling her body." So the original diamonds dress, an amazing work of art that had taken months in preparation, not to mention the fact that, from a design point of view, it would have fitted perfectly with the song, was dumped. And it was back to the drawing board for Travilla.      A new gown had to be created and in a matter of hours Travilla came up with the glorious pink concoction that is now synonymous with this musical number.   

    The original design for the actress to wear to sing "Diamonds Are Girl's Best Friend" was very different from the one that eventually found its way onto the screen. In his first sketches William Travilla created a dream costume for one of the most sensuous women he had ever known. The base of the design was a fishnet body stocking that would travel up her body as far as her breasts, which would be covered in nude fabric. An incredibly ornate necklace of diamonds started across her shoulders and cascaded down into a huge brooch just below her breasts. The bottom was a velvet virtual harness with very large hooks that kept it in place on her hips. Finally, four strands of giant stones traveled around her hips to the front, then flowed down into more jewels. At the back the dress pulled into five floor-length pieces of velvet covered in diamonds to represent a tail plunging down. The headdress was more diamonds, a tiara with a black bird of paradise and black gloves. This original costume was incredibly ornate and cost close to $4,000. A local jeweler secured the jewels directly onto the dress as Marilyn wore it. This took hours but was very important as the stones had to be placed perfectly so they would not turn and catch on the fishnet hose.     Sadly, this incredible dress was never to grace the silver screen or, at least not with Marilyn wearing it. 

I've made a section for people wearing the same clothing as Marilyn (I can't phrase it properly right now :)) According to Andrew Hansford's 'Dressing Marilyn':-Jayne Mansfield wore the dress complete, with golden balls, in the movie The Spirit of St Louis in 1957, and Betty Grable wore the belted version in a TV special in 1954 called A Shower of Stars.- Marilyn in the test shot for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes wore the belted dress, but neither Travilla nor Marilyn liked this version and she never wore it. She did, however, wear the version with golden balls (for publicity and Photoplay awards in 1953). Marilyn may have worn this version in the movie or the one with the bow. As the dress is only seen from the back, we will never know, but the actress's favoruite version was the one with the bow.-During his career Travilla created many versions of this dress-always with a bow, which tells us that he clearly preferred this version too.-Travilla did not want Marilyn to wear this dress to the Photoplay awards because he thought it was too vulgar for real life (according to Donald Spoto's book, it was because he though the dress was too tight, she was too fat for it at the moment and that people would laugh).

Bill Sarris recalls: "In those days you were not allowed to show cleavage, but Bill [William Travilla] always talked about how, because of how Marilyn's breasts were, you could cut a dress fairly low and still not show breast." Sarris also revealed another trick Travilla employed: he would take a little half-ball button and sew it inside the costume where the nipple would be so that Marilyn's nipples always appeared pert. According to Sarris, Travilla "had all kinds of tricks up his sleeve. When he worked up the sketch for the skirt-blowing scene I'm sure he didn't think it was going to become the most famous dress in the world."