Seven Year Bitch

Have you ever seen The Seven Year Itch? It's one of the more angrifying movies ever made. Remember the first episode of Mad Men, where Peggy Olson shows up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at Sterling Cooper, and all the guys immediately start being gross to her? It's like that, only the people who made it were those guys, and they think this is a totally normal way to behave. It wouldn't be quite so wretched if the movie were just twerpy Tom Ewell trying to get his leg over with Marilyn Monroe, but the opening scene is basically a joke about gang rape (twenty "Indian braves" stalking a young woman walking by herself) and it sets the tone for making my head explode. (Billy Wilder also wrote and directed The Apartment—you win some, you lose some.)

But that dress.

It really deserves that iconic status, even though that famous shot didn't even make it into the finished movie. (Too sexy, the studio said.) And really, the shot makes no sense. The hot air rushing up from the subway is not at all refreshing, unless you enjoy the stench of dead rats marinating in stale urine, and walking on the grate in heels is a great way to a) break your ankle and/or b) ruin your shoes.

But that dress! Seven Year Bitch would not exist without The Seven Year Itch, and for that I can almost excuse its many flaws. 

Seven Year Bitch was given to me by a friend of a friend who picked it up and thought I might like it. (Dear friends of friends: I strongly encourage this practice.) I liked it! I still like it! I might even love it. The print is a little unusual, almost feathery, or are those leafs? The background looks sort of snowstorm-y.

Maybe because of its obvious antecedent, Seven Year Bitch manages to give the impression of being sexy without actually showing a lot of skin.

Except at the bottom. The skirt is actually quite short.

But that just means it twirls very satisfyingly.

See?






And another thing: Marilyn Monroe's character doesn't even have a name! She's listed in the credits as "The Girl." I want Peggy Olson to school everyone involved with this movie, but she was only 15 when it came out.

All photos by Claire Loeb! Except for the one of Marilyn Monroe. Duh.