[BretLudwig]

Glenbow exhibit shows few fit Monroe's mould
Star's dresses were too curvy for mannequins
Michelle Magnan, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, December 02, 2008

"Don't feel bad if you couldn't imagine yourself squeezing into Marilyn
Monroe's dresses--the Glenbow Museum's mannequins couldn't fit into them,
either.

When the collection of dresses, called Marilyn Monroe: Some Like it Haute,
arrived at the museum in advance of its opening last Saturday, senior
curator Lorain Lounsberry couldn't find any mannequins with small enough
waists.

Nothing would zip up.


"Our mannequins are straight up and down and have very wide waists," she
says.

"Marilyn had a 22-to 24-inch waist."

To solve the problem, Lounsberry and Mary Rose, the former costume
designer who assembled the collection, settled on using mannequins not of
adult figures, but of young girls.

"To make them come to life with Marilyn's figure, they are padded out in
strategic spots," says Lounsberry.

"Marilyn's body was very important to her image."

Indeed, judging by the 10 original dresses and one replica--the famous
white "subway dress"--on display, Monroe had a curvalicious bod.

But that's not news.

What may surprise people who view the collection, which is making its
Canadian debut at the Glenbow as part of a bigger collection of art and
photography called Marilyn Monroe: Life as a Legend, is just how petite a
woman Monroe really was.

At five foot five, the star packed a lot of curves onto her petite frame.

Some of the dresses on display were worn for movies or premieres; others
for photo opportunities.

Lounsberry points out unique details about the dresses.

Walk behind them and you'll notice that Monroe wore the plain, black
velvet dress backwards because she preferred it that way.

And you'll see the heart patch that costume designer Orry-Kelly sewed into
the backside of the gorgeous silk crepe cocktail dress Monroe wore in Some
Like it Hot.

Jeff Spalding, the museum's president and CEO, believes this dress is the
most famous in the collection. (Heart patch and all.)

The design features gold and silver sequins, crystal beads and goose
feathers.

"Yes, it's a beautiful gown, but it's also astonishing to see it as simply
textile and to see how(Monroe's) extraordinary personage filled the dress
not just physically, but charged that dress with its power," he says.

It is certainly one thing to see the gorgeous outfits on the mannequins
and quite another to see how Monroe wore them in film or in pictures.

"It's when the persona--not just the body--goes in it that the dress
lights up," he says."

Both of the Marilyn Monroe exhibits, Life as a Legend and Some Like it
Haute, will be on display at the Glenbow Museum (130 9th Ave. S. E.) until
Feb. 22, 2009.

For more information, visit www.glenbow.org.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...b-07c2559dfe14

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