This is one of those dresses. You know the kind, a dress that makes you gasp or gape or murmur ‘wow’ the first time you see it. It’s a dress that immediately goes on your lust list, and yet for some reason you dont find it in your cart or in your hands for an age, and you’re not sure if you ever will. Maybe you can’t afford it, or you’re on temporary no buy, or it’s not the kind of dress you usually wear even though you love it, or you’re just not sure if you’ll suit it’s cut. You want it really badly but you’re half convinced it’s not meant to be.

The Marilyn dress by Glamour Bunny was one of those dresses for me. It was love at first sight, but the fact that it was a wiggle (I’m a swing girl,) all white (possible spills? Maybe unflattering on my shape?), embroidered (a bit fancy?) and £85 (probably too much for a dress I wouldn’t wear often) held me back.

Thank God for the festive season sales. Glamour Bunny very rarely does sales. During that period last year they offered 40% off for a day, and for Black Friday this past November certain dresses were discounted, but not all. I hoped they would offer something good for their Post-Christmas sale and I was delighted to see they offered 50% off. Marilyn, darling, it’s time you and I make it official.

Dress: Marilyn dress by Glamour Bunny
Shawl: Faux Fur Shawl from eBay
Hair Comb: Starburst from Pinup Girl Clothing
Bracelets: Old season Primark

This dress is an accurate, gorgeous and almost exact replica of one of the dresses Marilyn Monroe wore in the Seven Year Itch–typically overlooked by the iconic white halterneck dress she wears in the infamous upwards-draft subway grate scene. Personally, the white halterneck dress does nothing for me in terms of wanting it in my wardrobe, but this dress instead speaks to my soul.

The funny thing about this dress is that for the first couple months of my wanting it, I thought it was made of a plain white fabric which perhaps had the slight sheen to it of cotton sateen. I know the dress Marilyn wore–and this dress was based upon–was detailed, but the pictures on the Glamour Bunny website show this white dress on a white background and don’t allow you to zoom in close, so the detail of it is largely lost. I didn’t even realise it was embroidered until a friend ordered it and sent me pictures. The embroidery detail is lovely though, and the neckline is what most slays me about this dress. A lot of repro and vintage inspired brands make tops and dresses with the front cross-strap bust feature, but there’s something about the thinness of the straps and the angles of the bust that make this my favourite incarnation of the style.

I don’t own a lot of Glamour Bunny pieces but I do own their Tiki Temptation red sarong dress in an XL and it still fits me well, despite having gained a decent amount of weight since I bought it a couple years ago. Technically, the size chart for this Marilyn dress states the XL is only for 33 inch waists, and since Christmas mine had bloated out beyond that–but it fits! I wasn’t expecting this dress to have stretch, but it’s made of a stretch cotton and there’s definitely some there. I found that flat measured it’s 32 inches in the waist and I managed to measure it stretched to 35.5 inches. That reasonable amount of stretch means this dress fits me without feeling uncomfortably tight or cinched, though I did find the zip was very stiff and was hard to get over that dreaded waist-seam bump, even when I wasn’t wearing it and was trying to zip it up and down laid flat. I’m hoping some repeated zipping it up and down while I watch some TV, and maybe some added candle wax, might get that zip sliding more smoothly in future. Otherwise, this is a perfect dress and simply oozes glamour.

The Marilyn dress comes in sizes XS-XL and costs £85. You can order it directly from Glamourbunny.co.uk, which ships internationally, and where the code GBLOYALTY10 will get you 10% off your order. Additionally, you can check with one of Glamour Bunny’s stockists on their stockist list page, where they list their international stockists as well as their UK stockists.