People

Marilyn Monroe

She had to be smiling in heaven — Marilyn Monroe that is. Marilyn’s ‘The Seven Year Itch’ dress sold at a Profiles in History auction for $4.6 million plus another $.9 in fees. It was estimated to bring between $1 and $2. Marilyn’s red ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ dress also rendered the estimates meaningless, bringing in $1.2 million instead of $200,000-300,000. Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from “My Fair Lady,” carrying the same estimate, sold for $3.7 million.

The dresses were all owned by actress Debbie Reynolds, who began collecting them at a young age, when she was under contract with MGM. Marilyn Monroe is a superb example of a Smart Sensuality woman. You might be surprised to know that being taken seriously as an intellectual was a life-long dream of the Hollywood star.

Marilyn Monroe | A Smart, Sensual Blonde (includes old video of Marilyn being interviewed on ideas and her world view.)

Reflections on Female Sexual Desire: Anais Nin, Marilyn Monroe & Isabelle Allende Join Forces with Anne

Design

Brooklyn Launch LEIF

We have a nice Internet ‘progression’ story this am. Notcot delivered me to this set of mixed greens teaspoons, made in France and sold online and in person at a new shop in Brooklyn called LEIF.

Wandering over to their blog, we have a great example of a mix between content not sellling product and content that does. All the entries support the’ LEIF lifestyle’.

Now for the Big Love — no offence lovely French teaspoons.

If you look at as much fashion editorial as I do, you see Stella McCartney’s spring 2011 fruit print in your sleep. Much as I love it, there is a part of me that says ‘enough all ready’.

Unless it’s really creative, I’m over looking at the same oranges and lemons on fabric.

As for a cake — now that’s creative! Stella McCartney was so impressed that even she Tweeted about it, writes LEIF blog. Called the Stella cake, it’s a citrus cake with lemon curd filling and orange lemon icing.

Another visually arresting, great content mix blog Apollinas has many photos of her Stella cake and the recipe. The author is an attorney in Washington and began her blog as a form of ‘relief’ from her stodgy career. Smashing!

More reading on Stella McCartney:

Stella McCartney’s Love of Land, Family & Design Sustainability

Cross Currents

Fine Feathered Friends

Curves Ahead | Flamingo Bird | Rodarte in Italy | Florian Dovillez Hat Collection SN Living

Interior designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz loves to leave his signature feathers in urban spaces. Passing by one of his feather lamps on a tour of Lenny Kravitz’s apartment, the designer later offered, “I love the way they move with the air as you walk by, it makes me smile. I use them almost exclusively with lighting because light travels so smoothly through the material.”

Feathers strike us the same way, which is why Anne embraced this light-hearted topic in yesterday’s Curves Ahead. Moving the design conversation into flamingos is a stretch, but after reading about the Mulleavy sisters exhibit at Pitti Filatti and Florian Dovillez’s ‘Hat Collection’, it all made sense.

We covered Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz’s feminine design perspective at the Mondrian SoHo in an earlier Curves Ahead.

AOC/SN Daily Monday June 20

US Ranked 87 behind Afghanistan & Cuba in number of women in national Congress. Read on

Only 2 of 51 contestants for Miss USA were willing to embrace Darwin’s theory of evolution. Luckily for science, Miss California Alyssa Campanella of Los Angeles - a self-described science geek — won the title. The other contestant willing to embrace science was Miss Massachusetts. Read on

Only 12% of America’s high school seniors can pass basic American history test. Many are shocked to learn the country was founded on the East Coast — home to those damn Yankee liberals. Read on