Why did Marilyn Monroe wear a dress made from a potato sack

Today, the idea of ​​“Throwing nothing away” is once again in vogue. In the framework of modern trends "DIY" and "Handmade" needlewomen give new life to old things. However, all this was once invented, and, unfortunately, out of necessity. In difficult times, women always find ways to sew a new outfit for themselves or their children, even if there is nothing at hand but sacks of potatoes.

The time of the Great Depression in the United States was remembered for total unemployment. The incomes of the population have fallen so much that many families, quite decent yesterday, were near the poverty line. As always happens in difficult times, "gol" began to be sophisticated in inventions. Quite quickly, American housewives noticed that the bags in which they sell flour, sugar and livestock feed were sewn from real cotton. Probably, this fabric had not been thrown out before, but now they began to put it into operation in full - they began to sew from the washed bags. First - household stuff: bags, towels, diapers for children, and then moved on to more complex models. After a while, in rural America, many poor families began to wear clothes made from burlap.

Of course, even cleanly washed bags still kept traces of their past - stamps and inscriptions could remain on them, but this, it seems, did not bother anyone. However, soon the manufacturers of bags, having learned about the new use of their packaging material, also began to take into account the benefits, because during the Great Depression it was hard for everyone, and everyone was spinning as best they could. After a while, factories set up the production of bags of cheerful fashionable colors so that customers could choose the future outfit to their liking, and stamps on prepackaged products began to be affixed with special washable paint (instructions for its removal were attached). Companies began to compete for buyers, offering fabrics with more sophisticated prints.

Beginning in the 1930s, "bag fashion" took over America. Everything that was needed on the farm was sewn from waste fabric, and patterns for fashionable dresses could even be found in the same stores as the "source material". When problems began again in the 1940s due to the war with fabric, residents quickly returned to "depression economy" from old memory. There is a known case when in 1945 a girl sewed herself a wedding dress from bags, and this case did not surprise anyone, everyone was just happy about the resourcefulness and practicality of the newlywed.

By the 1950s, the situation in the country had improved, and thrifty fashion outlived its usefulness. However, in 1951, an incident occurred that made everyone remember that in order for a real Woman to look beautiful, it is enough to have at least a couple of bags on hand. That year, rising star Marilyn Monroe appeared at a party in Beverly Hills in a luxurious red dress. I must say that the young actress was just beginning her path to fame and caused just a flurry of envy because of the rapid take-off - yesterday no one heard of her, and today - a photo of a cute face in all magazines, a contract with the Twentieth Century Fox film company, in general, there is something to envy. The next day, one popular publication wrote a devastating article in which Marilyn's outfit was called tasteless and either advised the actress to put on a bag of potatoes, or suggested that all the beauty of this upstart is in flashy outfits, and she would have tried just as well look in a sack (the author of the article was, of course, a woman) … Literally a few days later, Monroe answered the spiteful woman with a mind-blowing photo session.

A dress from a potato sack was really made especially for Marilyn. From a modern point of view, by the way, the outfit looks very stylish: eco-friendly craft fabric, lettering, fringe.In this creative design, unusual for its time, the beauty of a gorgeous blonde played in a new way, and everyone was really convinced that even a potato sack could not spoil true femininity.

The pictures instantly scattered across the print media, and Monroe emerged from this dispute as the undoubted winner. By the way, a farmer from Idaho, who received an unexpected advertisement in this way, even sent the actress a bag of potatoes as a gift. Marilyn then said that in those days her team was still not very satisfying, so they simply stole the potatoes at the studio, and she got nothing. However, magnificent pictures entered the golden fund of photography and are now considered one of the most successful photo shoots of the Hollywood beauty.