It should be easy to identify Marilyn’s wedding gowns. In the magazine cover shown above left, she’s wearing the dress from her first wedding to Jim Dougherty. However, it’s not her wedding photo but a modelling layout for photographer Richard C. Miller – and by the time Personal Romances hit newsstands in June 1947, she was single again.)
An authentic photograph from the 1942 marriage is featured in ‘The Most Iconic Wedding Gowns in History’, over at Harper’s Bazaar – alongside bridal wear from Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and many others.
As Christopher Nickens noted in his excellent book, Marilyn in Fashion (2012), both dresses were beige, and designed by John Moore – but the resemblance ends there. Marilyn’s chiffon wedding dress had ruching on the sleeves and bodice and a satin sash under the bust-line.
The dress she wore en route to England was high-necked with medium-length sleeves, and banding under the bust which ‘saved it from plainness … allowing Marilyn to go sans brassiere.’
Here are some more images shot by Milton Greene at the Millers’ wedding…
And finally, two more of Marilyn’s bridal looks not covered by Harper’s Bazaar: below left, the lace Travilla costume worn by Marilyn – matching Jane Russell’s – in the double wedding scene from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953); and secondly, the brown broadcloth suit with a white ermine collar that Marilyn wore for her 1954 wedding to Joe DiMaggio.
The Marilyn Report 