Diamond girl who could talk for hours

On Friday, I headed into town just to buy a couple of things that I actually needed, but then did my usual trick of suddenly remembering that I have money again and spent a whole lot more of it than I should have done. I think I've mentioned it before, but one of the shops I should never be allowed into EVER is HMV. There is always some kind of sale or offer on and, because I'm obsessed with buying DVDs, I quite often end up standing in there for an hour, pondering over which 4 DVDs to get for £20. I went in to buy the Paloma Faith album, which I've been meaning to buy for a while, but somehow managed to leave with both the album and this;

To be fair, because of all the saleness, both the album and boxset only came to £22, which is pretty good when you consider the boxset contains 7 DVDs. However, at this point I had already spent a good deal of money in Boots, bought two pairs of shoes in Primark AND owed Liv money for the Particuliere, so I probably could have done without the trip to HMV. But let's not worry too much about my scary spending habits and instead focus on lovely, lovely Marilyn. I briefly mentioned my love for Marilyn here; she is definitely my favourite Hollywood icon. My sister and I had an argument about her the other day as Liv favours Audrey Hepburn and thinks that watching any Marilyn film is painful because she was such a bad actress. I, of course disagree in a big way; I honestly think she had the most amazing screen presence and a brilliant sense of humour. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot are two of my absolute favourite films, I just find myself smiling all the way through them. The boxset I bought is actually Volume Two of "The Collection", they didn't have Volume One, but I'll no doubt buy it at some point. As I said, it contains 7 DVDs, most of which are Marilyn films I've not seen before, so I plan to work my way through them over the next few weeks and enjoy a bit of old Hollywood glamour and sexist stereotyping. Lovely.

Yesterday, I watched How To Marry A Millionaire, the title says it all; it's about three models who are on a mission to find rich husbands. (ever noticed how many Marilyn films involve her trying to find a rich husband?! She's certainly not the best example of a strong, independant woman, but I guess that's old-Hollywood for you...) Marilyn, playing Pola Debevoise, probably has the smallest part of the three leads; (the others are Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable) the main angle of her storyline is that she needs to wear glasses because her eyesight is so poor, but refuses to let men see her wearing them, (because "men aren't attentive to girls who wear glasses" apparently) so spends a large part of the movie bumping into things. Fortunately, love conquers all and she meets a man who finds her more attractive with her glasses on and they get married. And he doesn't even have any money. Well done Pola, well done.

As with all of these old movies, the fashion is fabulous and Marilyn looks stunning throughout;

Marilyn as Pola, Lauren as Schatze and Betty as Loco. For some reason they all have really weird names...

They both wear glasses! It's a match made in Heaven!

I think these specs are adorable, I'm very tempted to get some myself.

As well as all the incredible clothes, I always find myself distracted by the hair and makeup in old movies. It was always so sophisticated; hair was coiffed and curled to perfection and the makeup was simple but sexy, with fluttery lashes and bold red lips. I love how this trend for 40s and 50s styling is making a comeback today, with a lot of stars choosing to go for old-Hollywood glamour when on the red carpet at various events (think Christina Hendricks at the Golden Globes and Cameron Diaz at the Oscars). This look has also become really popular with the rise of Burlesque, with people like Dita Von Teese championing the classic glamour of the 40s; porcelain skin, strong, sculpted brows and flawless hair.

Even though, at first glance, this look appears to be quite minimal and simplistic, I'd imagine there's actually a lot of work involved, especially with the hair. Dita is never seen looking anything other than immaculate, so imagine how long it must take her to get ready in the morning!

Someone else who embraces the whole burlesque/old-school glamour look, though she brings a distinctly modern twist to it, is Paloma Faith. As I said, I've just bought her new album and I thought I'd share the photos from it because I think the styling is just beautiful.

The album cover is probably my least favourite of all the images but those tattoos are very Chanel. In fact, her album was released before the Chanel show took place so you could say that she's the one who set the trend...

Excellent eyebrows, Paloma, truly excellent.

Just hanging about in the grass with her accordion, you know how it is.

These are my two favourites I think. The hair is gorgeous - I find it so difficult to create loose waves like that. Any tips?

Wow, I didn't intend for this post to be so long, it was originally going to just be about Paloma (isn't that a nice name by the way? I may call my first child Paloma, regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl...) with just a brief mention of Marilyn, but ah well, this is what happens when it's a Sunday morning and there are so many pretty pictures out there!

All Paloma images are scans from the album "Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?" which I thoroughly recommend! The Marilyn and Dita images were all found on Google.

Hmmmm

I just noticed that Tavi, of Style Rookie fame, featured some photos on her blog from the November 2001 US Vogue editorial of models posing as iconic music stars from the past and present. Some of the models included in the shoot were Devon Aoki (as Yoko Ono, with a male model as John Lennon), Karolina Kurkova (as Marilyn Manson, REALLY weird) and Karen Elson (as Janis Joplin). The general consensus on Tavi's blog was that most people didn't really like the pictures, they're a bit ANTM-esque and, to be frank, just aren't very good. The majority of the musicians featured were legendary artists and such mediocre images almost do them a disservice in some way. That being said, I do think that this one with Sophie Dahl as Debbie Harry is rather uncanny;

Although it's not quite the same thing, the idea of celebs posing as other celebs got me thinking about the Marilyn Monroe shoot Lindsay Lohan did where she recreated the famous nude "Last Sitting" photos shot by Bert Stern (Stern actually shot the Lohan version as well).

When I first read about this, it really, really pissed me off, mainly because I hate it when comparisons are made between Marilyn Monroe and anyone else ("Scarlett Johansson is the new Marilyn!" No, no she isn't), but also because Lindsay Lohan doesn't even remotely resemble Marilyn Monroe and could never in a million years hope to look as gorgeous as she did in the originals. Not only that, but to recreate this particular shoot is, I think, kind of insensitive, as it was the last one that Marilyn did before she died. And it's not as if they're just trying to do something similar to the "Last Sitting" photographs; they were recreated shot for shot, same props, same poses, same hair and makeup. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that, but it just seems a bit conceited to me, as if she thought, "Hey I could so look like Marilyn!"

Come off it Lindsay...

I just looked online, and unsurprisingly, there are countless examples of celebrities recreating famous Marilyn images. The website http://www.ms-monroe.com/ has three whole pages dedicated to 'Mirrored Celebs' from Jessica Alba to Christina Aguilera, to the biggest Monroe impersonator of them all; Madonna. However, none of them are quite as extreme as Miss Lohan. Obviously, Madonna's Material Girl video was based on the Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend sequence in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes;

But for some reason, that doesn't seem quite as offensive, as it's not as if she's actually singing the same song or even doing the same choreography (unlike Kylie Minogue - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T10VecAun-Y - ick), it's her own version and is really more of a parody, considering the context of the rest of the video and the lyrics to Material Girl.

Maybe I'm just being biased because I like Madonna and don't particularly like Lindsay. And Madonna looks like she's having a good ol' time in her video while Lindsay just looks awkward and uncomfortable in the photos.

I don't really understand what is gained by posing as a legend such as Marilyn, sure it might be good fun to play dress up, but it's not as if you're proving anything about yourself except that you may or may not have some resemblance to the star you're emulating. When asked about the Lohan shoot, Bert Stern said that he suspected Lohan had 'hidden depths'...Well Mr Stern, that remains to be seen really doesn't it? As far as I can tell, a nude photoshoot doesn't actually aid a person in revealing their "hidden depths"...unless that's actually just a euphemism for "boobies" nowadays...

In conclusion, I would say Marilyn is sacred, don't dress up (or get undressed) as her. Ever.

Unless you're Madonna...