Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend (and an Honest Review of the Smiffy’s Deluxe Marilyn Monroe Costume)

Not too long ago it was my much-anticipated 21st birthday, and I was having a 1950s-themed birthday party to celebrate. I was planning to spend most of the party dressed in a poodle skirt-style costume, but I wanted to do a surprise performance at the end of the party dressed as the legendary Marilyn Monroe in her iconic ivory halter neck dress. And so, preparations for a Marilyn cosplay based on The Seven Year Itch begun!

Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ivory halter neck dress in The Seven Year Itch

I wanted to go with a lace-front wig for this costume, so that it would look as natural and realistic as possible. I found this gorgeous wig from Iwona Wig which was exactly what I was looking for. They were very kind and made sure I got it in time for the party even though I left it very late to order and they were based in China.

When the wig arrived, I placed it on my new wig head which I had recently bought from Arda Wigs, and it was stunning and exactly like the photos!

Next up was the dress. I found that it was very hard to find a similar-enough dress without spending a fortune, which I couldn’t afford to do since I had already spent so much on the birthday party. Usually I tend to avoid buying anything from fancy dress companies for a cosplay, because the quality isn’t great, but when I came across this “deluxe” Marilyn Monroe costume from Smiffy’s which claimed to be premium rental-quality, it seemed like the best option out of the more affordable Marilyn dresses, so I thought I would give it a go. However, this is where everything started to go wrong!

The Smiffy’s deluxe Marilyn Monroe costume

I eagerly anticipated the dress’s arrival, and was so excited when it finally arrived. I was expecting that when I took it out of the packaging, it would look just as good as it did in the photo. Little did I know that I was about to be very disappointed.

When I unpackaged the dress, I discovered that there were some greasy-looking stains on the inside of the packaging, which was concerning since I bought it brand new from an eBay seller who got her supply direct from the manufacturer (Smiffy’s). Even more concerning was the grubby marks on the dress. However, the worst part was the pleated skirt. The pleats weren’t even sewn into the dress, and appeared to have just been ironed-in, but to my horror, instead of coming down from the waistline, like any other pleated skirt, the pleats at either side were coming down (or more like across, actually) from the side seams! Being a “one size fits most” costume, there was way too much material at the sides, too, and it looked saggy and hung strangely when I tried it on. Just to put the cherry on the icing, the dress also had some baggy belt loops for the ribbons to pass through, but they looked really silly and stopped the ribbons from lying flat across the dress.

What a disaster!

I then checked other people’s reviews for the costume on Amazon (which I should have done to start with), and found that they had all the same issues as me.

It was then that I knew that I had two options: to try to return the dress and find an alternative, or to practically take the whole dress apart and fix all the problems with it. I couldn’t find another dress that I was happy with, and I naïvely thought that I could handle fixing the dress by myself and everything would be fine. So, I bought a sewing kit and got to work.

First, I unpicked the belt loops from the dress, before realising it would have been easier to just cut them off. When I unpicked them, it meant that some of the stitching and elastic at the back of the dress came undone, so I had to try and sew it back into place. However, the big problem came when I tried to deal with the skirt. I unpicked the whole skirt from the top of the dress and attempted to fold proper pleats into it and sew it all in place so that I could then re-attach it to the top section. However, after all of my sewing, I discovered that there was not enough material at the top of the skirt to account for proper pleats, and ended up with a waistband that would’ve fit a doll.

It came to the day before the party and suffice to say, I was very stressed out. I knew I wouldn’t get the dress fixed in time, so I went to my mum and explained the whole palaver. She kindly offered to sew the skirt back onto the top section using a sewing machine (something which I do not currently own or know how to use), and I started to calm down a little.

However, when the skirt was finally re-attached, we then discovered that the hemline looked wonky, and the front and back were different lengths. I tried to draw a new hemline for us to sew along, and we then cut off the excess material that was underneath the new hem. However, even though I made sure the hem was equal on both sides and curved with the skirt of the dress, it still didn’t look quite right afterwards, and looked slightly asymmetrical. The bottom of the material also started fraying where we had cut it, thanks to the dress being made out of satin-like ribbon material. I had also attempted to iron-out the bad pleats, and iron-in some new ones, but I just ended up with irregular pleats since there was just too much material at the bottom of the skirt as opposed to how much was at the waistband. However, as the day of the party came around, I knew that we were out of time, and the dress was as good as we were going to get it.

So, the party happened, and while the dress wasn’t perfect, it got me through the night! I was still (and still am!) bothered about the pleats and wonky hem, but I’m thankful I had a dress to wear in the end. I didn’t try to find any screen-accurate earrings and heels for the costume, since I already had some white heels and white pearl-style earrings which were close enough to Marilyn’s for my liking (and I was on a budget!), but it still worked well. I did my performance, which was a medley inspired by the Marilyn Monroe character at the Universal Studios theme parks and her performances with The Diamond Bellas, and consisted of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” by Marilyn, “Candyman” by Christina Aguilera and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by The Andrews Sisters, and it was a hit! We even tried to recreate the iconic blowing-up skirt scene (my friend tried to create a wind under the dress by flapping a large piece of cardboard!), which didn’t exactly work, but we had a big laugh!

At the party!

After this experience, I can safely say that I have learnt a few lessons for the future, one of which is that I will never again buy from Smiffy’s! Also, I really need to work on my sewing skills!

What’s your favourite Marilyn outfit? Let me know in the comments!

Poppy x