Salvatore Ferragamo celebrates launch of Marilyn Monroe exhibit

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death on Aug. 5, 1962, Italian brand Salvatore Ferragamo launched an exhibit to pay tribute to the late actress. The special show will be on display at the company’s museum in Florence, Italy until Jan. 28, 2013.

The opening-night for the event on June 20 saw models wearing the iconic pleated white dress that Monroe made famous in “The Seven Year Itch” to welcome guests. Celebrities including Anna Sophia Robb, who will play young Carrie Bradshaw in the new TV series “The Carrie Diaries” and actress Rose Byrne, were in attendance for the festivities.

Monroe’s dedicated exhibition includes retrospective show film clips, photos, international magazine covers, her original writings and 30 pairs of shoes and more than 50 outfits from her most successful movies including "Niagara," "Some Like It Hot" and "The Asphalt Jungle," as well as in her personal life.

“I never met her, but I know Marilyn used to buy our shoes at our Park Avenue store in New York,” said Wanda Ferragamo, the nonagenarian matriarch of the family, as reported by WWD.com. “She was always wearing our pumps, especially with sequins in red or white.”

“Researching Marilyn, we realized what an extraordinary woman she was,” said curator Stefania Ricci, who developed the project with Salvatore Ferragamo over the past two years. “As it's been said, she is the avatar of the American dream. She is a woman who truly wanted to assert herself.”

Curating the exhibit, Ricci displayed masterpieces of the ancient past with portraits of Monroe taken by artists such as Bern Stern, whose 1962 images of the actress are matched with Antonio Canova’s sculpture "Ninfa Dormiente."