'Antiques Roadshow' guest was 'ready to fall over' after hearing value of her Marilyn Monroe dress
Movie props and pop culture memorabilia are among the most sought-after items to appear on "Antiques Roadshow." One such thing that turned up on the show was an iconic dress that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. The sleek black dress from the Oscar-winning film "Some Like It Hot" was passed on to the guest by one of his friends. While he knew it was of some value, the show's expert, Beth Szescila, blew his mind by valuing the dress at a whopping $250,000. Then, the worth of the dress was updated to more than $600,000.
In the episode, the guest shared the interesting provenance of the dress and how he acquired it. "A friend of mine, Donfeld, who was a costume designer in Hollywood, gave it to me. I don't know, but I assume he probably got it from Western Costume Company," he told the appraiser. He also shared some photographs of the actress wearing the dress. Taking over from the guest, Szescila noted how significant the dress was. "The dress was actually created by Orry-Kelly, the Oscar-winning costume designer. He did a lot of clothing for Marilyn. He created the dresses specifically for her, and he would often actually sew her into the dresses to make them fit just right, to get that really sexy look," she explained.
Further examining the dress, she noted that it was in black peau de soie, a material that's very similar to satin. She shared that the material was specifically used to give it a wonderful fringe and all the movement that the actress needed for her action roles. "It's really amazing, looking at this dress, at how small it is. I think most of us don't realize that Marilyn was such a small person," she noted. The guest also agreed, saying that he was surprised as well when he first saw the dress. Special further noted that the dress had some identifying material on it which indicated it was the real deal. "This seems to be the label from his collection because it says 'Don Feld,' and it identifies the dress as having been worn in the movie. And then we have a label here with Marilyn's name on it. And with the pictures, you can easily see Marilyn in action, where she's wearing this dress and it's really fabulous on her," she said. "Right, well, this is an iconic dress from an iconic film, worn by one of the greatest sex symbols of the 20th century," she further added.
Coming to the appraisal, the expert estimated that the dress could bring somewhere between $150,000 and $250,000. This blew the guest's mind, and he exclaimed, "Oh, my...! Whoa!
To add to his delight, Szescila went on to add that the market for such an item was quite unpredictable and she wouldn't be surprised if the dress brought a sum much higher than her estimation. "I'm just going to be conservative here because I don't want to get you too excited," she told the guest.
However, the guest was already excited as he said, "I'm about ready to fall over." The show later shared an update in 2022, raising the dress's value to over $600,000.
