by Rod Lott
Marilyn Monroe: Your Personal Fashion Consultant Michael Feder and Karan Feder
Despite being dead, cinema’s all-time sex symbol apparently is farming out her style know-how. Just check out MARILYN MONROE: YOUR PERSONAL FASHION CONSULTANT by Michael Feder and Karan Feder. It’s part of Abrams Image’s “Punch Out and Play!” series.
That’s a catchy way of saying “paper dolls.” On sturdy cardstock pages, you get image after image of a head-to-toe Marilyn, each in a different outfit: a swimsuit, a potato sack, a nightie, that SEVEN-YEAR ITCH dress, that shape-hugging gold dress (shiver) and more.
There are stands in the back so one can display these full-color, pint-sized Marilyn standees (although I’m not entirely sure who’d want to). Each is adorned with a winking caption to tie it to the theme (“Always dress as if you’re ready to ride a stallion”), and that’s all there is to it. Nicely designed, the book can’t be reviewed any more than that — either you’re into this sort of thing, or you’re not. —Rod Lott