What size was Marilyn Monroe? 'Distractify' spoke exclusively with 'Blonde' costume designer who shared her opinion at the icon's dress size.
For decades now, other people have been hung up on what size Marilyn Monroe was. And even different Hollywood actresses have compared their physiques to that of the Fifties display celebrity, who’s now the subject of the Netflix film Blonde.
Article continues under advertisement
Take Roseanne Barr’s comments from 1996. “I’m more horny than Pamela Lee or whoever else they’ve got available in the market this present day. Marilyn Monroe was a size 16. That says all of it,” she said at the time, in line with Jezebel.
And in 2000, Elizabeth Hurley introduced a horrible take to Allure: “I’ve always concept Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, however I’d kill myself if I was that fats. I went to peer her garments within the exhibition, and I sought after to take a tape measure and measure what her hips had been. … She was very giant.”
Marilyn Monroe was once declared to be size 12 — and “too plump.”
As Mental Floss reviews, a receptionist took Marilyn’s measurements in 1945, when the longer term actress — then going by way of Norma Jeane Dougherty, her first married name — signed up with modeling agency Blue Book Agency. According to that receptionist’s notes, the then-19-year-old stood at 5-foot-5, weighed 118 pounds, had measurements of 36-24-34, and wore a size 12.
Blue Book owner Emmeline Snively once recalled her influence of Marilyn. “She was a clean-cut, American, wholesome lady — too plump, but stunning in some way,” Emmeline mentioned, in line with Donald Spoto’s biography of the actress.
Article continues underneath advertisement
So, what was Marilyn's precise size? Distractify spoke completely with Blonde costume designer Jennifer Johnson who shared her tackle Marilyn's size discrepancies.
"If you say you're a size 12 in 1955, those sizes, the sizing doesn't translate to now," Jennifer defined to us. "So a vintage 12 was probably like a 2 or a 4, like, it doesn't relate. It's more like a U.K. size."
The costume head continued: "They're interpreting, 'Oh, she wore a size 10,' well she was actually like a 2, you know, she was really small. Her hips were probably a 37 ... I think she'd be considered petite if you saw her today."
Article continues under commercial
While Jennifer referred to Marilyn as "pretty teeny," she explained that she thinks numerous Marilyn's proportions had been created the usage of techniques that gave the semblance of extreme proportions reminiscent of cinching in her waist.
She added, "She has a small waist but cinching it in and then ... adding to her bust. She used to have marbles sewn into the tips of her bust to exaggerate her nipple, for instance, which we didn't do in the movie because it looked really strange and there'd be too much of a discussion."
Article continues below commercial
Journalists have seen that Marilyn should have worn smaller sizes.
After trying on a few of Marilyn’s robes and discovering them too small, NPR’s Jessica Seigel present in 2003 that the size 12 stat was fallacious.
“The delusion that Marilyn would be considered close to plus-size today has change into a struggle cry in the tradition wars over feminine body image,” Jessica stated. “The truism that the arena’s sexiest woman would be fat via lately’s glamour standards has been repeated unattributed in masses of articles and books. Nice check out, but … Marilyn Monroe was no longer even close to a size 12.”
Article continues beneath advertisement
Later, British journalist Sara Buys got here to a an identical conclusion — decreeing in a 2009 article for The Times (by way of Jezebel) that Marilyn was “not a voluptuous size 16,” a British an identical of a U.S. size 12.
“While she was undeniably voluptuous … for lots of the early a part of her career, she was a size Eight and even in her plumper levels, was no more than a ten,” Sara added. “I can tell you this from revel in as a result of a few weeks ago, I attempted to try on her clothes.”
Jezebel’s Sadie Stein famous that a British 10 interprets to anywhere from a Four to an 8 within the U.S., relying at the designer. Sadie additionally identified that Marilyn’s weight fluctuated — and that the “severe girdles” that were in style on the time meant that clothing was lower slender. “All we will know evidently is that Marilyn Monroe was a ravishing, dramatically curvaceous woman with a physique heavier and curvier than that which is en trend now,” Sadie concluded.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKhfrLWiwIysoLOdXayutHnMmqmipKmjeq67zaumng%3D%3D