Style

Since her death on Aug. 5, 1962, hundreds of books about Marilyn Monroe have been published by various writers, ranging from famous names such as Norman Mailer, Gloria Steinem and Joyce Carol Oates, to people who worked with her on movie sets. With so many choices, its hard to navigate through the Monroe oeuvre, but here are 10 volumes that should nourish the soul of her most ardent fans. "Marilyn: A Biography" (1973). Norman Mailer's controversial, lavish, coffee-table exploration of Monroe includes stunning images by several noted photographers as well as the author's rather grandiose prose.

If you walked the floor of the recent Magic and Project fashion industry trade shows, you probably noticed two major themes for fall 2011 casual wear: the Old West and a continuing interest in classic American work wear. The worn-in, vintage look of work wear has been extremely popular for men for several seasons, especially with the revival and hipsterization of labels such as Pendleton and Woolrich. Now that look is marching into fall for women's accessories, unisex knits and denim.

They shared the glassy eyes, the stilted smile and the artificially shiny blond hair, but Paris Hilton's wax figure at Madame Tussauds in New York was wearing an outfit that might have made the real celebrity practically melt with shame: The dummy was dressed in a velour tracksuit, a belly-baring, body-hugging artifact of the early aughts. Even when her wax lookalike debuted in 2005, Hilton's once-trendy tracksuit had begun its mutation into the comfort wear of the attraction's tourists and a uniform of the masses.

For many Californians, 72-year-old Jerry Brown's return to Sacramento for another go at being governor brings with it more than a little dab of déjà vu. Consider: He is inheriting the job from a Republican actor/politician, American soldiers are fighting in foreign lands, director Roman Polanski has recently been in the headlines, the McRib is back on the menu and '70s and '80s influences are back on the fashion runway. But that sense of déjà vu doesn't extend to the man himself ?

"What a Pair!" organizers Jody Price and Ruth Stalford paired up with "the beer chicks," Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune, and the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica on Tuesday for a class in "Beer Pairing 101. " "What a Pair!" is an annual musical revue, slated for Sept. 25, that features celebrity duets and benefits breast cancer research at the John Wayne Cancer Institute . Over a seven-course dinner, Perozzi and Beaune, authors of "The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer," gave a course-by-course description of the different styles of beer — explaining why, for example, Allagash White beer goes with ricotta cheese and Rodenbach beer complements chocolate.

Although several designers have tried to forge a modern identity for Nina Ricci over the last decade, the French fashion house is still better known for the iconic fragrance L'Air Du Temps (launched in 1948 in the Lalique bottle with glass doves) than for clothes. But the brand's new creative director, Peter Copping, is trying to change that. Copping follows on the heels of Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens, who wowed critics and fashion eccentrics alike with his collections (remember those heel-less fetish shoes?

As the star of "33 Variations" at the Ahmanson Theatre, Jane Fonda has been performing six days a week, twice a day on weekends. Instead of relaxing on her day off, she spent Monday discussing her life, career and current play with Michael Ritchie, artistic director of the Center Theatre Group, at a gathering of CTG's Artistic Director's Circle. "Jane woke up this morning with laryngitis," Ritchie said. "She could have easily bailed on the entire evening and all of us would have understood.

At the preview of "The Art of Motion Picture Costume Design," two-time Academy Award-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood said Johnny Depp wanted his Mad Hatter costume to capture the flavor of a mood ring. So she layered his topcoat with multiple colors of silk. Standing beside his costume from "Alice in Wonderland," Atwood said the challenges of designing for Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter included the changing sizes of the characters. "Alice shrinks and grows, and Helena's big head made her neck look as thick as a thigh," Atwood said, adding that she solved that problem by creating a collar to narrow the appearance of Bonham Carter's neck.

Eric Olmon proposed to Chethana Kulkarni by driving her to all the locations in Pasadena that had played a significant role in their love story.  “We went to her old apartment, the cafe where I first saw her, the lily pond on campus where we would sit and talk after band rehearsal, and finally Dabney Garden at Caltech, where we first met,” Olmon said. “At each location, I left a note and a rose. In Dabney Garden, I sang her a song and presented her with a ring that I had designed myself.