A year ago, precisely in June, I had the idea of remaking some pictures of Marilyn Monroe and bringing them again to your attention. They are of course not like her pictures, but they were inspired by her and her time. Since my teen years, I was often obsessed with the pin-up women. I studied their lines and their style carefully and it looked like I found myself in the `40s, `50 and `60 women. I get deeply emotional whenever I get back to those years and I wish I could have lived in those years in order to feel like them because I think they were THE REAL WOMEN! Those days’ women didn’t take on diets, but they still had wonderful curves under their tight dresses and they also wore high waist bikinis and had classic lines. When you come to think of it, even Hollywood was different with icons such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brandon, Audrey Hepburn etc., who are undisputable images even nowadays.
You are probably wondering why did I choose to remake Marilyn’s pictures and the answer comes right away: I chose her not because I look like her, not at all, but because I was marveled by what I read from her, I was deeply touched, in a way that I had never felt before. Marilyn was not the most beautiful or the smartest women ever, but she embodied the meaning of the words coquette and playful girl: she was just like a baby and I think that this is what we have in common. Maybe this is also due to the fact that we are both Gemini.
I did not have a lot of information about her before: I had not read about her, I had not seen her movies, but when I first saw one of her movies (How to marry a millionaire) I noticed something rare in her play, something typical which couldn’t be just acting. Since then, I decided to gather information about Marilyn, read different books and stories about her and now I feel like I have known her my entire life. At short, this was the reason why I decided to share these pictures which are very special and dear to me, to honor Marilyn Monroe in her month.
Photo: Endrit Mertiri
Makeup: Suela Cangu
