Marilyn Monroe understood costume the way very few actors do. It was not something the studio put on her but a tool she exploited. William Travilla, who designed her clothes for seven films, said that Monroe had an almost architectural understanding of how fabric moved on her body. This exhibition presents the evidence. Here are hundreds of original objects from the star’s film career, including production documents, letters, portraits, and an extensive collection of screen-worn clothes tracing her arc from her first lead role, in 1949’s Love Happy, to Something’s Got to Give, the Fox film from which she was fired in June 1962—two months before her death. The show’s centerpieces are two Orry-Kelly designs from Some Like It Hot and the pink-satin Travilla gown—rarely exhibited—that Monroe wore in the number “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. —Elena Clavarino