[nelie]

Originally Posted by rockinrobin

Marilyn Monroe is another one who comes to mind. She wasn't a stick either. And she was what, only the biggest sex symbol around. Ever. Still to this day. Wasn't she a size 10 or 12?

Yes she was around a current size 10 or 12.

I always admire girls that aren't bony myself. I was shocked when I heard that some of the tabloids were criticizing Tyra Banks for gaining a few lbs. It is hard to be a model and be super thin. Let the girl eat!

Here is a snippet about the article People published about her.

http://www.people.com/people/article...009611,00.html

[aphil]

Yeah-that is what I meant by the media in my earlier post-a 5'10" woman who is 160 pounds like Tyra is now after retiring from modeling-and the tabloids make it sound like she is morbidly obese!!!! This would be equivalent to a more average height woman around 5'5" weighing about 140ish.

It is ridiculous.

[nelie]

Ohh even better. Apparently Tyra poised recently on Sports Illustrated. She has a bikini shot. This picture compares her 140 lb body of 10 years ago to her 160 lb body of today. Her 160 lb body is definitely something to be envied!! (Yes she is airbrushed as all models are for cover shots but I also saw the video of her in the same bikini and she looked amazing)

[shrinkingchica]

Originally Posted by nelie

Yes she was around a current size 10 or 12. [Marilyn Monroe]

No, actually. This is an urban myth. She was actually what would now be a US size 6 roughly.


"We can at least establish a range of measurements for Marilyn Monroe based on the available sources:

Height: 5 feet, 5½ inches
Weight: 118-140 pounds
Bust: 35-37 inches
Waist: 22-23 inches
Hips: 35-36 inches
Bra size: 36D" --- http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.htm

[veggielover]

Originally Posted by maegdaeien

T America Ferrera and Jennifer Hudson are both media darlings right now, and I've yet to see one negative word about their weight.

OH MY GOD. Does anyone else here love American Ferrera as much as I do? (From Ugly Betty?)

Betty Suarez is my role model- smart, clever, sassy, a little absent minded at times and always bubbly. I love her to death.

[veggielover]

Originally Posted by shrinkingchica

No, actually. This is an urban myth. She was actually what would now be a US size 6 roughly.

Yeah I totallu agree with today's changing sizes. I went to buy vintage t shirts once and a women's large was like today's XS. Boy, every woman must've been like Sandy from Grease!

[trekkiegirl]

Originally Posted by veggielover

OH MY GOD. Does anyone else here love American Ferrera as much as I do? (From Ugly Betty?)
Betty Suarez is my role model- smart, clever, sassy, a little absent minded at times and always bubbly. I love her to death.

Me, too! I also love how Betty and her family are basically the happiest, most well-adjusted characters. They actually *like* one another. And I'm dying for Betty & Henry to heat up. Geek love...sigh.

I mentioned earlier I think America looks great. I know she used to be heavier than she currently is, but she seems comfortable in her body now. She looks healthy and radiant. I like the idea that she and the show are making young girls feel better about themselves. And that, even though the main setting is the fashion magazine, that whole environment with the stick-figure models and the lack of real food in the cafeteria is depicted more as satire than serious. I love the whole tack of how most of the characters make fun of Betty but the show really makes more fun of them.

[nelie]

Originally Posted by shrinkingchica

No, actually. This is an urban myth. She was actually what would now be a US size 6 roughly.


"We can at least establish a range of measurements for Marilyn Monroe based on the available sources:

Height: 5 feet, 5½ inches
Weight: 118-140 pounds
Bust: 35-37 inches
Waist: 22-23 inches
Hips: 35-36 inches
Bra size: 36D" --- http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.htm

I actually got the size 12 from Snopes. The urban myth was that she wore a current size 16 which isn't true. Sizes have changed quite a bit.

A woman of Marilyn's height, at the extreme of Marilyn's weight range (140 lbs), would probably wear a size 12 dress today (which is the same dress size listed for Marilyn in the book The Unabridged Marilyn). Perhaps at one time she did wear dresses that might have been considered size 16 (or even 18) back in the 1950s, but she almost certainly did not wear dresses equivalent to today's size 16.

[shrinkingchica]

Well, from personal experience, (I am 1.5" shorter than she was, and I know that all people have different body types and sizes, ect, ect.) that I am at her highest weight right now and I am an inch and a half shorter (read: stockier). I am a 12 in dresses because of my boobs (same size as Marilyn's) but in jeans I am an 8. And I can only imagine (*hope*) that accounting for the fact that for each extra inch of height one is "allowed" 5lbs to their body weight; if I lose another 8lbs that I might be able to wear a 6 (at least at some places, maybe). And then we also have to note that that is at her HIGHEST weight, goodness knows how tiny she must have been at 5'5" and 118!!!! That is probably a current size 0.

[maalisse]

Originally Posted by shrinkingchica

And then we also have to note that that is at her HIGHEST weight, goodness knows how tiny she must have been at 5'5" and 118!!!! That is probably a current size 0.

I suppose it depends how she carried it; I'm 5'5", and I have big ol' hips; when I was 115 lb back in 1995/96, I wore a size 10-11 pants (before vanity sizing, but I imagine that would still be an 8 or so). Given that Marilyn had very curvy hips, she may have been a larger size than today's 0...who knows?

At any rate, she was gorgeous.

[redlight]

Did you ever see Nicole Ritchie before she lost weight? She had a cute, curvy figure.

[nelie]

Originally Posted by shrinkingchica

Well, from personal experience, (I am 1.5" shorter than she was, and I know that all people have different body types and sizes, ect, ect.) that I am at her highest weight right now and I am an inch and a half shorter (read: stockier). I am a 12 in dresses because of my boobs (same size as Marilyn's) but in jeans I am an 8. And I can only imagine (*hope*) that accounting for the fact that for each extra inch of height one is "allowed" 5lbs to their body weight; if I lose another 8lbs that I might be able to wear a 6 (at least at some places, maybe). And then we also have to note that that is at her HIGHEST weight, goodness knows how tiny she must have been at 5'5" and 118!!!! That is probably a current size 0.

I guess it also depends when that article was written. Sizes are changing constantly to keep up with our ever increasing bodies. Plus sizes I think are the worst. I'm in that weird stage where my top doesn't really fit plus sizes any more but it also doesn't really fit normal sizes either. Lane Bryant has started making size 12 because they've shifted their sizes so much.

[Genesis]

I've heard from multiple sources that based on today's sizes, Marilyn would be a size five or six. Apparnetly her white dress in The Seven Year Itch is about a current size five, but it was a size 12 back in the 50s. Even a size five/six is large for today's hollywood standards. I'm a size six and I certainly don't feel small. I also feel like a fraud wearing a size six. I'm a size 10 in 6 clothing....last time I was at this weight I wore a size 10. The vanity sizing in this country is just plain stupid. We're getting so fat a size 6 now has to fit a size 10. I feel sorry for truly tiny people. I don't see too many double zeros in most stores.

I also found this online...

"Vintage Sizing...was Marilyn Monroe Really a size 12?

----Marilyn ( at one point in her life/career) probably WAS a size 12 but what 99.9% of people who mention this fail to point out, is that she was a VINTAGE size 12. Today, with the same measurements, she would probably be a size 6 (in most garments). Would we love and adore her any less if her dress size was bigger or smaller? I think NOT. She was Fabulous no matter what her size was, vintage or otherwise. Just as YOU are fabulous, what ever YOUR size is!"


Source: http://www.justsaywhen.com/Vintage-101-Sizing.htm

[freiamaya]

Re: Marilyn Monroe and the current trend of VANITY LABELLING!
Marilyn Monroe's height was 5'5", weighed between 115-120 at her peak, and her measurements according to her dressmaker were 35-22-35. Please see:
http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/facts.html
Back in the 1950s, when dress sizes were DIFFERENT, that made her around a US size 12. Today, the US size 12 is now a US size 4 or 6, if not smaller. Americans have gotten bigger over the years, and manufacturers have adjusted their sizes according to the vanity of their customers. Please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_sizing
There also wasn't any uniform sizing back in the 1950s - it was just being developed --see
http://www.sazzvintage.com/size_chart.html
For the best article on this see
http://www.fitme.com/Fitme/html/Publ...Z_Rep_0104.htm
re: the Marilyn debate.
Personally, I would LOVE to be a size 12 if that meant measurements of 35-23-35!!!

[aphil]

Marilyn's weight was also known to fluctuate a lot-if you go over her many films and photos, etc. you will see that she is very slim in some of them, and more buxom and curvy in others. I sew and design costumes, and I take my clients measurements every time-even if I made them something 2 months ago-because measurements change.

Just because one site says she was one measurement, and another says a different measurement, doesn't make either one of them wrong.