THIS famous dress is a 1950's design by William Travilla. From what I've researched, this dress has quite a dramatic story. Originally created for Marilyn Monroe's character, Lorelei Lee in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the dress did not make much film time due to it's sheerness. Still, Marilyn made it famous by wearing the gown to a Photoplay awards ceremony, where someone remarked that her ass looked like "2 puppies fighting under as silk sheet"...LOL, nice! The dress, as well as Marilyn were immortalized in images from this photo shoot sampled here. I owe whoever took these photos a BIG thank you, as I was able to study the dress in detail and see how the fabric was draped. Other than photos, it was very hard to find specific information on how the dress was constructed. Here is a re-cap of what I've found so far :
1.) The dress was created from a circle of metallic tissue lame' with sunburst pleating draped to the wearer's dimensions for a skin-tight fit. I found notes that the fabric itself was sheer and quite delicate. Travilla chose it for the camera effect, so essentially it was not intended for outside wear.
2.) The dress had iron rods (or boning?) down the CF so a deep V neckline could be achieved
without the shadow of cleavage. In fact, you can see the impression of boning at the CF neck in the close up shots of Marilyn. The actual cut of the dress is not too revealing by today's standards. Note how the halter is cut high at the armhole & wide at the neck, so there's no "side boob" either. It's the whole package: the cut, fabric (and the wearer's rockin' bod) that makes the dress so unforgettable.
3.) It was not only worn by Monroe, but there's pics of Jayne Mansfield wearing it and possibly Betty Grable & other actresses wore it as well.
4.) The gown had no actual closures...so the wearer had to be sewn in. There's documentation of this in several Monroe biography sources. It is also noted that she selected the dress herself for the Photoplay Awards from the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes designs. Travilla advised against the selection, even he protested it was too sheer & risque for public use, but she insisted, and he sewed her up...
And the rest, my friends, is history.
5.) The location of this actual dress today is unknown. I assume the dress is gone, because of 2 big reasons: 1-The fabric's delicate & metallic tissue lame' is not known for it's longevity. The metal threads are know to break & give way over time. 2-It was altered & worn by others after Monroe, which would have also contributed to its deterioration. If by some miracle this dress was still around, it would be in shreds, and definitely not to the measurements of Marilyn.
6.) Last year, this design was part of a "Lost Dresses of Marilyn Monroe" Travilla Exhibit that turned out to be a massive fraud. They claimed to have the original Travilla dresses on display that were worn by Marilyn herself. I saw pictures of the exhibit, and you would have to be a real dummy to believe those dresses were the real thing. It was painfully obvious they were all copies, and not great at that! Travilla was known for making copies of his costume designs for other uses.
