Marilyn Monroe's style lives on...

With retro looks being so much in vogue today, thanks to shows like Mad Men, we find ourselves increasingly seduced by vintage fashion.

I was also very fortunate to come across images of personal property auctions over the past few years for clothes and accessories worn by Marilyn Monroe as well as her personal memorabilia to inspire the look…

What impressed me the most about Marilyn Monroe’s clothing that was up for auction at various sales was how simple and classic it all looked – apart from her signature halter-neck dresses of course…

Actually, it was more about how she filled out those simple styles rather than the clothes themselves being sculptural. When you’ve got a body like Marilyn Monroe had, you probably don’t need a lot of tricks and props such as padded shoulders or gathering to hide figure flaws.

Many would agree that Marilyn Monroe had a near-perfect figure, though even more would argue that she was indeed absolutely perfect!

Monroe has to be one of the most emulated and mimicked actresses in history. If you don’t believe me, see the likes of everyone from Madonna, Ana Nicole Smith, Lindsay Lohan to Paris Hilton trying in vain to channel her style and mannerisms.

Women are so busy these days striving for equality and yearning to be taken seriously. They totally miss the point that there is no such thing as real “equality” for anyone – regardless of gender – but individuality and uniqueness is where the power lies. And in the case of Marilyn Monroe, it’s her very feminity that translated into so much power. Vive le difference, as they say…

It was also quite intriguing that the femme fatal owned a pair of rather unflattering round-framed glasses with thick black plastic frames. Those too are surprisingly trending these days, though one scarcely thinks of Marilyn Monroe upon seeing them!

Those images of Marilyn Monroe in her pink gown and pink gloves, white halter-neck billowing or perhaps as a goddess in her bronze lamé halter-neck dress with the deep V-neckline is how we like to remember her best.

No one knew more about reinventing oneself than Marilyn. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, baptized and raised as Norma Jeane Baker, she then became Mrs Norma Jeane Dogherty.

She later took her mother’s maiden name Monroe, then adopted the screen name and persona of Marilyn Monroe after a recommendation from Ben Lyon of 20th Century Fox, having already changed her hair to blonde from her original brown during her modeling days. Voila! A star was born!

Decades come and go but the fervor for Marilyn Monroe remains undying since her untimely passing in August of 1962 at age 36.

Her story continues with many claims of reincarnations of the starlet including from Scottish Sherrie Lea Laird and the Hungarian Zsuzsanna, a.k.a. ZsuZsa.

Can souls split and reincarnate simultaneously? But that aspect of Marilyn Monroe is another (very long) story. Long live Marilyn Monroe…