William Travilla was Marilyn Monroe’s close friend and the designer of some of her most iconic dresses, yet little was known of him until Dressing Marilyn was published – a book containing all his designs, never been seen before sketches, photographs of Marilyn and hand written letters from the style icon to her designer and confidante.
To launch the book, we shipped some of Marilyn’s original dresses and Travilla’s sketches of her from the US to London and put on a one-night exhibit at Altitude 360. We invited Strictly Come Dancing’s Kristina Rhianoff to wear the iconic gold dress that Marilyn wore in “Gentleman Prefer Blondes.” Kristina made an elegant Marilyn Monroe and the image of her at the launch of Dressing Marilyn was broadcast all over the media, resulting in global exposure for the book. The One Show filmed the exhibit and Kristina, Sky News and ABC made the story international and key lifestyle magazines ran coverage, including Stylist, Grazia, Vogue, Stella, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Closer, Hello.