Child of California: Marilyn or All About Her Colour Type

Marilyn is one of those celebrities I’ve always wanted to know everything about — and I can count only a handful like that. With Marilyn, the more you learn, the more you want to discover. Every detail seems to open another door.

me standing next to Marilyn's prints at the TCL Chinese Theatre

Her life was full of ups and downs, misfortunes, and brief, fragile moments of happiness, often overshadowed by struggle. Yet through all of this, her image became one of the most carefully crafted and instantly recognisable in modern culture.

That’s exactly why I’ve always wanted to understand what colour season Norma Jeane truly belonged to — especially since her public image was so impeccably curated. The “Marilyn Monroe” the world knows was not an accident. It was built layer by layer, colour by colour, light by light. And beneath all that artifice, there was a very real, very specific natural colouring that made the illusion work so beautifully.

Norma Jean's Early Appearance

According to photographs and memoirs, young Marilyn had light brown hair with a reddish tint that became especially noticeable in sunlight. This warmth in her hair is often overlooked because of how strongly we associate her with platinum blonde, but it was there from the beginning. In childhood and early teenage photographs, her hair appears soft, warm, and almost honeyed when the light catches it.

Her eyes are perhaps the most misunderstood feature. Across photographs and films, they appear to change constantly. In early images, they often look brown, which has led many people to assume that her eyes were dark. In reality, her eyes were blue — but not a cold or piercing blue. They were more likely a warm blue, enriched with speckles of other colours: gold, grey, and sometimes even greenish tones. They were never the icy or steel-blue shade that makes you stop whatever you’re doing; instead, they were soft, sunlit blues.

Eyes with mixed colouring often behave like chameleons. Depending on lighting, clothing, makeup, and film quality, they can appear darker, warmer, or entirely different from one photograph to another. Marilyn’s eyes were exactly like that — responsive, changeable, and deeply influenced by her surroundings.

Her overall complexion, even in the earliest years of her life, was remarkably radiant. There was a warmth to her skin that felt open and inviting rather than sharp or dramatic. It was the kind of warmth that reads as approachable and luminous, not heavy or overpowering. This quality formed a core part of her natural, irresistible charm — one that felt perfectly at home on sandy beaches, in the sun-washed deserts of California, or inside the warm-toned interior of her beloved “cute Mexican” house.

What Zazu Feu's Type Marilyn Is

Within the Zazu Feu system, Marilyn fits best into the Marigold category.

She is neither too dark nor too light, but unmistakably warm. Her colouring sits in that golden middle ground where warmth is present without heaviness, and brightness exists without sharp contrast. This balance is what allowed her to wear such a wide range of warm mid-tones so successfully.

Marilyn’s skin lacks the depth and richness required for Rudbeckia, which needs more density and shadow to hold very deep colours. At the same time, her colouring isn’t light or delicate enough for Buttercup. Pastel warmth alone would wash her out. What she needed were colours with substance — warm, lively, and grounded in the mid-range.

This is why she looked so exceptional in colours that might overwhelm a Buttercup but still felt harmonious on her: tomato red, pistachio green, warm lilac, and glowing shades of orange that echoed the natural warmth in her skin and hair.

Marilyn instinctively wore her colours. You can find countless photographs of her dressed in oranges, golden reds, creamy yellows, and warm greens. Even when the silhouette was simple — and she often preferred minimalism in her everyday style — the colour itself did the work. These hues refreshed her complexion, softened her features, and amplified that signature glow that cameras loved so much.

In many ways, the success of the Marilyn Monroe image wasn’t just about glamour or seduction. It was about harmony. Her carefully chosen colours worked with her natural warmth rather than against it, allowing her to appear luminous, alive, and unforgettable, even long before platinum blonde hair and studio lighting completed the transformation.

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