Style icons: Marilyn Monroe

I adore Marilyn Monroe.  I love her movies, her hair, her amazingly breathy voice, I love everything about her.

Marilyn is best known for her sexiness.   She is one of the most recognizable sex symbols in the world, and everything about her just screams sex, from her husky voice, to her juicy red lips and her ‘come hither walk’.  However, Marilyn confessed several times throughout her life that she didn’t even really like sex, and it is rumoured that she never even had an orgasm.  Her persona and style were all a carefully constructed visage, built for the express purpose of making her seem like the ultimate sex kitten.

Marilyn had naturally brown/auburn hair which she dyed platinum blonde.  It has been rumoured that she also bleached her pubic hair so that she could feel blonde all over.  Although there were plenty of blonde starlets at the time Marilyn rose to fame, she was considered to be the ultimate.  Her hair colour was especially created for her by her hairdresser, and he refused to give the formula to anybody else, so that it couldn’t be copied.

Marilyn’s makeup was nothing short of a work of art.  She had her makeup artist arrive at her house early each morning, in order to begin the application process that would take hours.  Her makeup was carefully applied using watercolour brushes to ensure maximum precision and a perfect finish.

Whenever you look at a photograph of Marilyn, you will notice that her clothes are always luscious.  She wore rich fabrics like silk fur, which just begged to be touched.  Her jewellery was fine and plentiful, but never tacky.  She practically always wore heels, and in fact, I think I have only seen a couple of pictures where she is wearing flats.  Her clothes were perfectly fitted to ensure maximum impact as they hugged her curves and shimmied with her every movement.

I find Marilyn’s look inspiring for a number of reasons.  The first is because she was just so polished.  She put so much effort into her appearance and always managed to look glamorous and sexy.  The main reason that I consider Marilyn a style icon s that she is a perfect case example of the power of clothing and image.  She was a woman who was fragile, kind and sweet at heart, a woman who loved children and animals and who wanted companionship and love rather than sex.  However, years of planning, painting and tweaking have earned her the role of ‘sex symbol’, based almost purely on the way she looked and her outward behaviour, rather than her actual personality.  Marilyn is a testament to how powerful image is, and how the clothes we put on our backs lead people to make assumptions about us, whether we like it or not.  I think that this message is an imporant one to consider.