The 'n@ked dress' that Marilyn Monroe used to sing 'Happy birthday, Mr. President'
Neither Rihanna nor Kate Moss, the first to wear a transparent dress was the most iconic blonde of all time
On May 19, 1962, the world was left with its mouth open to hear how the beautiful platinum blonde sang Happy Birthday in a sensual voice to John F. Kennedy himself, who was her lover, in front of 15,000 people in Madison Square Garden In New York.
As memorable as the song was the dress that Marilyn Monroe wore on that occasion: transparent, tight, without underwear... and totally inappropriate. A n@ked dress, we would call it now, which was also accompanied by a mink stole.
Marilyn's dress - designed by Jean Louis - was so tight that, once put on, it had to be sewn shut behind her, but as the performance began it began to tear, losing some of the 2,500 crystals she had embedded.
The aesthetic moment that was created that night was sublime. The sensuality and the point of impudence with which she sang to Kennedy, sheathed in that tight dress and with the sophisticated point that the mink stole provided her, is unrepeatable… no matter how hard Rihanna tries.
Monroe's performance surely provoked reactions in JFK that she had to hide in public, so she only managed to joke:
“NOW I CAN RETIRE FROM POLITICS AS THEY HAVE SONG ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ TO ME IN SUCH A LOVING WAY.”
The interpretation of Marilyn Monroe went down in history for several reasons. The first, because it was one of her last public appearances, before she died. Second, because she reaffirmed – in the most blatant way possible – the affair between the actress and the president, who was married to Jackie Kennedy. And third, because Monroe's dress rose to fame as a symbol of the song, selling at auction in New York in 1999 for $1.26 million.
