My Weekend With Marilyn

Last weekend we took a little road trip out of the city and through the Macedon Ranges up to Bendigo to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibition hosted by the Bendigo Art Gallery. I'd been itching to get up to Bendigo to check this out for ages (especially after I missed the Grace Kelly exhibit they held last year) and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

We'll get back to marvellous Marilyn in a moment. First, let's go over what we're wearing because, let's be real, that's what I'm all about.

In the words of Coldplay, when putting together this OOTD, it was all yellow. Well, minus a couple of accessories.  I'm not going to lie, I planned this whole outfit around this amazing hat I got from the National Trust. I've recently been in the market for some more vintage hats but I'm struggling to find ones that fit my giant head. Well, medium sized head and lion's mane of hair. I'd been trying for a hat with no luck until one day the stars aligned and this yellow baby was bestowed onto me. Word of advice though, do not forget your hat pin. It was incredibly windy out (can you even tell that I curled my hair that morning?), and that hat did not want to stay on my head. I love it though. It's beautiful and it completes me. I've no idea what year it is though. Any ideas?

Next up, the dress. I thought, if I'm going yellow I may as well commit. Go hard or go home, right? Plus the pants I was working on to wear to the exhibition are throwing a hissy at the moment in their fitting stage, so they won't be seeing the light of day any time soon. I've actually had this dress for a few years but I've barely worn it. It was way too big for me when I bought it and I did a really shonky job of taking it (I know, bad altering on vintage, I'm sorry) so I kind of got frustrated and put it away and that was it. I'm a little bigger now than I was when I first altered it though, so I'm breaking it out again. It deserves to be worn. The kimono sleeves are a little tight and the bust is a little roomy but aside from that it fits pretty well. My padded bra had to go for a Hail Mary to make this work but I think I got away with it. It definitely needs a belt though to nip that waist in. It's hard to take in a waist without either taking away from the fullness of the skirt, or separating the bodice and then putting it back together and ain't nobody got time for that. I mean, I'm meant to be writing an essay right now (five essays to exact) and yet here I am. I can't justify spending time on a complex alteration as well! This is also one of the only dresses I own that has a pleated skirt that actually looks okay on me? For some reason pleats around the waist usually just really don't work for me and make me look boxy. The belt probably helps though. If you were to take the belt off this outfit might turn into an episode of Scooby Doo with the belt removal as the unmasking and me crying "and I would have gotten away with it too"!

I think this might be my first post where I'm actually wearing my glasses. Pro-tip: if you wear single vision lenses Specsavers will put lenses in any frames of your choice for $99. At that price I can almost afford to have frames to match every outfit, and one day I will. These frames are just el cheapo ones from eBay but they're holding up bar a little flaking around the ears. This is covered by my hair though so it's all good. I believe they're a pretty popular style as I've seen quite a few Instagrammers rocking them in all colours of the rainbow. My gloves were also purchased from the National Trust. They have the cutest little wave detail running from the cuff down the ring finger of each hand. I love wearing hats and gloves, it makes me feel so proper and ladylike. I got a lot of compliments on my appearance at the exhibition, including one little girl who though I was part of it...

The exhibition itself was amazing. It really looked at Marilyn as a person, not just as an icon, and was very personal and respectful. It follows her development from childhood as Norma Jeane Mortenson/Baker/Dougherty to Marilyn Monroe and contains a large catalog of effects from across her life. There were a lot of iconic costumes and prints, with a lot of information about the history of these, as well as items from her personal wardrobe; her annotated scripts, and possessions such as her first camera and her childhood copy of a book on Hollywood starlets. There were some beautiful photographs from throughout her career, and the difference between her early and later years is striking. My favourite photos from the exhibition were of Marilyn portraying famous actresses, including Clara Bow and Jean Harlow. I can't believe I'd never seen them before! Shot by Richard Avedon in 1958, they're beautifully executed and I'm itching to get my hands on a print of one of them (or all, I'm not picky).


After the exhibition we explored the town and hit up all the local op shops (of course) and found a couple of bargains. We also found a lovely little hat shop and Luke bought his first fancy, handmade hat in a deep green to match his favourite suit. He looks terribly handsome in it, but I've told him that if he's going to wear it he's to wear it properly. A nice dress hat needs to be worn with the proper attire! He's usually pretty good at dressing himself though, so I trust him with it.

The next day we hit up more bakeries than we should have and went antiquing. I think we must have gone to almost every antique store from Bendigo back to Melbourne. It's great fun but the problem with antiquing is that you significantly increase your risk of bringing a cursed object into your life. I've been pretty lucky so far but every now and then I'm reminded of this. Exhibit A: this photograph of Seward Johnson's Forever Marilyn was shot with one of my old land cameras. Could this be because the film is expired? Possibly. Could it be because my camera is cursed? Almost definitely. I mean, it would explain why it was such a bargain. Speaking of bargains, we found a 1930's Box Brownie on Sunday but are yet to test it for spooks. Will report back in future.

Jumping back to Marilyn for a moment, Johnson's Forever Marilyn is currently on display in Australia as part of the exhibition. I think it's her first time out of the US, which is really exciting, and for some reason she's found her way to rural Victoria. The famous depiction of Monroe from The Seven Year Itch is 26 feet tall and weighs 15,000 kgs! I know Marilyn had an incredible hourglass figure but I don't know that she was ever 15000 kilos. It took her 33 days to get here by boat, so once she's gone she's gone; I can't imagine they'll be making that trip twice! What I'm getting at is, if you get the chance, make your way to Bendigo because she, and the entire exhibition for that matter, is something to be seen.

This has been a pretty long post. Congratulations for making it this far! As a reward I'm going to share with you a photo that didn't make the cut for the OOTD images. Every time we take blog photos Luke makes me do a Toyota jump and I don't know what happened with this one but something went terribly wrong and somehow I ended up floating. Imagine this hovering towards you in the middle of the night, or chasing you down a dark alleyway. A curse? Almost probably yes.