Beauty in a Potato Sack Dress

A person as gorgeous as you would make a potato sack dress look sexy!

How did an off-the-cuff remark about Marilyn Monroe inspire cute novelty dresses?

If you head over to the 20th Century Fox Vintage shop, you’ll find this absolutely adorable 1960s potato sack dress. It was so quirky and cute. I simply had to do a little digging about the concept!

I’m sure I’ve seen the photograph of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe wearing a form-fitting potato sack. But I never knew the story behind it.

There may be more than one story behind the dress, but the exact background seems to be lost to the ages.

The Mind Circle suggests that the 1950s publicity photo may have come about after a female critic was irritated by a low-cut, form-fitting red dress Marilyn wore at an event. She haughtily suggested that Monroe would’ve looked better had she been wearing a potato sack.

Another story simply credit the potato sack reference to an anonymous person who quipped that Marilyn Monroe was gorgeous enough to make a potato sack sexy. This inspired film studio 20th Century Fox to stage the photo shoot and put Marilyn in a skin-tight, thigh-skimming potato sack to prove the point!

And the story doesn’t end there!

Obviously, we wouldn’t be here if those 1960s novelty potato sack dresses hadn’t taken off.

Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana have not one but two burlap-sack style dresses in their repertoire!

This 1992 jute sack dress is available for a paltry $24,995 from 1st Dibs.

And only 10 years ago, during the designers’ spring 2013 show, this fabulous burlap sack dress made an appearance!

So rock that potato sack! You’ll look great!