Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Pix Inc./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Recent Vogue covers on both sides of the Atlantic feature celebrities dressed up as Marilyn Monroe. Granted Michelle Williams (forever Jen Lindley in my heart) is promoting her new Monroe biopic on the October 2011 cover of American Vogue. The trailer for which you can see below, it’s worth it if only to see Emma Watson spit out the glaring anachronism “fancying.” Nobody ‘fancied’ anything other than pigeons in the 1950s. But I don’t know what is going on with Rihanna’s Marilyn Monroe wig on British Vogue.
It seems to be a starlet’s rite of passage now, to either be lauded as the next Marilyn or, if that hasn’t happened, stage a photo shoot in which they morbidly re-enact Monroe’s last photo shoot. Don’t get me wrong, I like Marilyn Monroe and I think her suicide (sorry, mysterious and unexplained death) halted what could have been an incredibly interesting career development. It doesn’t mean we condemn every attractive actress to shoots wearing a blonde wig and white dress. All we are ending up with is a stream of young women who think success means perfecting a sexy Little Girl Lost appeal. I don’t see Vogue Hommes churning out cover after cover with actors dressed as James Dean.
If we can’t have actresses posing just as, you know, themselves then can magazine editors at least start picking stars of yesteryear they actually look like? Vogue Global has definitely used up its Marilyn (and for that matter Audrey Hepburn) cover quota for the next decade. Scarlett Johannson, Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera and Lindsay Lohan are going to have to find a new star’s style to plunder. And there’s a wealth of fascinating old Hollywood stars to play with who had their own iconic style and stories. Some of them even Madonna hasn't tapped yet.
Here’s my list of who I would like to see emulated next time a magazine stylist runs out of inspiration.
Clara Bow – The 1920s are pretty zeitgeisty right now. So why aren’t I seeing any covers with someone decked out like the original It Girl and Flapper? With her red hair, Brooklyn accent and scandal-riven life Ms. Bow needs to be back in the picture.
Lena Horne – An incredibly beautiful, civil rights campaigning singer and actress who made Stormy Weather her signature song. Max Factor himself designed a make-up line for her. Horne died only last year at the age of 92.
Theda Bara – Her name is an anagram of Arab Death! Exotic! Next time a fashion magazine doesn’t know what to do with a curvy girl they should check out this vamp’s wardrobe. No black suits here. No sir.
Squeamish Kate
If we can’t have actresses posing just as, you know, themselves then can magazine editors at least start picking stars of yesteryear they actually look like? Vogue Global has definitely used up its Marilyn (and for that matter Audrey Hepburn) cover quota for the next decade. Scarlett Johannson, Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera and Lindsay Lohan are going to have to find a new star’s style to plunder. And there’s a wealth of fascinating old Hollywood stars to play with who had their own iconic style and stories. Some of them even Madonna hasn't tapped yet.
Here’s my list of who I would like to see emulated next time a magazine stylist runs out of inspiration.
Clara Bow – The 1920s are pretty zeitgeisty right now. So why aren’t I seeing any covers with someone decked out like the original It Girl and Flapper? With her red hair, Brooklyn accent and scandal-riven life Ms. Bow needs to be back in the picture.
Lena Horne – An incredibly beautiful, civil rights campaigning singer and actress who made Stormy Weather her signature song. Max Factor himself designed a make-up line for her. Horne died only last year at the age of 92.
Theda Bara – Her name is an anagram of Arab Death! Exotic! Next time a fashion magazine doesn’t know what to do with a curvy girl they should check out this vamp’s wardrobe. No black suits here. No sir.
Squeamish Kate
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