Marilyn Monroe’s ‘The Seven Year Itch’ outfit: the scandal surrounding the controversial clothing choice

Lately, there have been more and more articles on FilmTotaal about controversial film outfits of various actresses. Last time it was Milla Jovovich with her The Fifth Elementoutfit, but this time it’s none other than Marilyn Monroe’s turn.

Everyone has at least heard of Monroe. For years she was one of the most famous names in Hollywood. She was also seen as a sex symbol for a long time. This is partly due to her performance The Seven Year Itch from 1955.

Story
Richard (Tom Ewell) is central to the story. His life runs smoothly and he is seen as the ideal husband. When the holidays arrive, he gives his wife and son a nice time, while he stays at home to work.

Just then he receives a visit from his beautiful and young upstairs neighbor, played by Marilyn Monroe. Her most famous scene in this film is undoubtedly the moment when Monroe’s dress is blown up and she tries to stop it.

Iconic
This was quite an iconic moment. It is not without reason that this white dress was sold for a record amount of 5.5 million dollars during an auction in 2011. The previous record was set by Audrey Hepburn’s black dress Breakfast at Tiffany’s. When The Seven Year Itch this scene was also a great success, but not everyone was happy with it…

This scene with Monroe was shot on a busy New York street, with about 100 photographers on hand to capture it all. Director Billy Wilder then showed this scene to a test audience of approximately 2,000 people.

Madness
This included photographer George Zimbel, who said the crowd went crazy when Monroe’s dress flew up. However, the actress’s husband, baseball player Joe DiMaggio, was anything but happy about this…

He showed up unexpectedly on set and saw how all the men went crazy when they saw Monroe ‘half naked’. The famous couple reportedly had a heated argument after these recordings. However, it doesn’t stop there.

Parting
When Monroe returned to set the next day, she needed quite a bit of makeup to cover all the bruises. Three weeks after the infamous scene, she filed for divorce.

The designer of the dress, William Travilla, never thought the dress would cause such a stir. This was far from his intention. His goal was to create an outfit that would convey the sweet and innocent side of Monroe’s character while also making her look sexy at the same time.