In 2012, make-up artist Lisa Eldridge posted a YouTube tutorial on how to recreate Marilyn Monroe’s signature look. The video – detailing the flick of (brown, not black) eyeliner, the half-set of false lashes and multiple layers of lipstick and gloss – clocked up more than a million views in its first week. Fourteen years later, it has prompted Authentic Brands Group, the owner of the film star’s estate, to name Eldridge as its sole make-up collaborator for the centenary of Monroe’s birth.
The anniversary, on 1 June, puts the star back in the spotlight. Eldridge’s make-up collection has just launched; alongside it, a slew of exhibitions will mark the occasion from an homage to the actor at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles to Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, a show at London’s National Portrait Gallery. It’s also a boon for Monroe memorabilia, says Adrian Hume-Sayer, director of private and iconic collections at Christie’s. “Her appeal remains as relevant today as it ever was. It is the emotional connection rather than the intrinsic value of the object that drives the price – and a major anniversary invariably draws more material.”
