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| Marilyn as Sugar Kane in Some Like it Hot |
In what is probably her most loved role as Sugar Kane, in Billy Wilder’s
Some Like It Hot, Marilyn was at her least happy, doped up on pills, infuriating her co-stars with her constant re-takes and turning up late for filming, if she turned up at all. Possibly the greatest comedy ever committed to film was made with likely the unhappiest actress in one of its lead roles. Monroe was known to have particularly hated this role, believing no woman would be so stupid as to beleive these two drag artists weren’t men.
The recent film which cast Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe,
My Week With Marilyn, in fact, went out of its way to portray the woman behind the glamorous image. Harvey Weinstein, one of the producers of
My Week With Marilyn, describes Marilyn’s dicotomous nature as ‘innocent, sexual and intelligent ... an alchemist's dream’.
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| Marilyn while filming The Seven Year Itch. |
This contradiction is also played out in her clothes – the glamorous outfits she is known for – the billowing white halter neck from
The Seven Year Itch and the bubblegum pink satin strapless evening dress dripping with diamonds from
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes contrast sharply with her clothing worn in her own time. This dichotomy was noted by Marilyn herself when she declared with typical aplomb: ‘I like to be really dressed up or really undressed. I don’t bother with anything in between.’
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| Marilyn on the set of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes |
According to her dressmaker and her personal maid, Lena Pepitone, who was in charge of mending Marilyn's clothes and other functions (like bathing and laundry) Marilyn’s clothes, if anything, were there to highlight what was underneath. She wore her clothes ‘like skin’. Pepitione claimed Marilyn regularly wore clothing so tight that they would split at the seams, requiring Lena to do a lot of mending.
As a result, Monroe’s clothes were often criticised. No less an authority than Joan Crawford carped at her ‘vulgarity’. However, for Marilyn, her ‘if you've got it, flaunt it’ attitude to dressing was getting her noticed. Hems were weighted to achieve the requisite cling. She would place marbles in her bra or sew buttons into the bodice of her dress for the permanent pert-nippled look. Biases were cut so tight that she could not sport underwear – in fact, she was often sewn into her dresses, to achieve the perfect fit. However, rather than harm her reputation, this information, infuriatingly to her detractors, only added to her allure.
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| Photographed by Eisenstaedt at home, relaxing |
Some Hollywood writers accused her of knowing nothing about fashion, but in 1952 she hit back: she was too buxom, she said, to wear Parisian fashions. Like most women, she didn’t have a boys’ figure, as did the Parisian models. In ordinary life Marilyn dressed casually: T-shirts, capri pants and flat shoes. In
My Week With Marilyn, this is made abundently clear in one scene where it is shown that ‘Marilyn Monroe’ is a character - she ‘turns on’ for the press. In the scene, she is with Alan Clark, the young Englishman who befriends and is seduced by Marilyn while she is filming
The Prince and the Showgirl in Pinewood Studios in 1956, as they are caught in front of a throng of paparazzos who catch up with her while she and Alan are strolling the grounds of Eton. Marilyn turns to Alan and coyly exclaims ‘Shall I be her?’ meaning should she give the press the Marylin they expect. With that, we see her snap physically into ‘character’, leaning against a wall with her shoulders back, chest out, one toe raised and pointed to emphasise the curve of the hip and leanness of her leg. The film clearly suggests that ‘Marilyn‘ was something she was able to ‘turn on’ when required. In particular, it suggests that the real Marilyn was in fact, not only rather different from her public image, but only too aware of it.
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| Michelle Williams as Norma Jean turns on Marilyn Monroe |
In a recent article in
The Guardian, Jess Cartner-Morley discusses Marilyn’s toned down style in depth. She writes: ‘in the 1950s her off-screen wardrobe was remarkable for its cool, pared-down colours, its modernity and simplicity. Hers was a simple, confident, typically American style. Jill Taylor, the film’s costume designer, based the wardrobe she designed for Williams on pictures of Monroe from the period. “I found a wonderful photo of her taken during the time the film is set, cycling in the English countryside. She is wearing capri pants, flat loafers and a chunky navy cardigan. She had a very natural, understated way of dressing. I think she was rather ahead of her time, in fact.”’
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| Marilyn and Arthur Miller take in the English countryside |
Cartner-Morley says ‘Marilyn’s wardrobe in the film still looks right today. When Williams-as-Monroe lands at Heathrow, she wears a grey sheath dress under a cream trench, with black sunglasses and a battered tan leather holdall. It is an outfit that would work perfectly in 2011: the tonal mix of grey, tan and black gives what could be an overly ladylike outfit a modern edge. The Max Mara-style camel cashmere coat, in which Marilyn gets mobbed outside the Asprey store in Bond Street, could also walk straight off-set and into a contemporary wardrobe.’
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| Marilyn is mobbed outside Aspreys on the set of My Week With Marilyn |
She continues: ‘The colours Taylor chose for Williams are a strict palette of neutrals: white, cream, beige and black. “White and cream lifts the skin,” says Taylor, “and complexion is part of the character – it was that luminosity that made Marilyn stand out among all the other blonde wannabes.” It gives her a sophistication that stands out against the English characters in their knitted browns, and school-blazer blues. “I wanted to show the difference between the English and Americans. We were so much more traditional and uptight,” says Taylor.’
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| Helen Mirren as Paula Strasberg to Michelle Williams’ Marilyn |
The black polo-neck and houndstooth capri pants which Marilyn wears to a read-through in the film represent how she really dressed. ‘When you see photos of her at the Acting Studios, that is the sort of thing she wore,’ Taylor says. Indeed, the real Marilyn bought a white roll-neck sweater from the veteran London cashmere label N Peal during her stay in England. John Vachon’s photos of a younger Marilyn photographed with her then-boyfriend Joe Di Maggio in 1953 show her canoodling and flirting but wearing black and white checked trousers with a knitted white polo shirt, buttoned right to the neck. Very chic, very contemporary – and strikingly demure. Eve Arnold’s famous portraits of Monroe a few years later, on the set of
The Misfits in 1960, also show this almost tomboyish style, with the actor wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a denim jacket.
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| Marilyn and Joe D Maggio photographed by John Vachon in 1953 |
Taki Wise, one of the gallerists behind
Picturing Marilyn, an exhibition of portraits of Monroe that has just opened in New York, says of her that ‘when she was photographed, she didn’t pose – she evoked a mood.’ Her clothes, too, were more about evoking a mood than modelling a particular fashion. ‘In fact, to be honest, I get the vibe that Marilyn wasn’t all that interested in clothes,’ says Taylor.
See next week's blog for Part 3 of this feature.
