HAIRS Apparent

Flaxen strands have long been desirable, but the pervasive popularity of certain departed blondes prompts the question: Is there a golden ratio for relevance beyond the grave?  

- ROXANNE ADAMIYATT

There’s a scene in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie when Ken, in a rare moment of introspection, laments the burden of his people. Not extremely good-looking airhead playboys, mind you. “Is it my destiny,” he croons, “to live and die a life of blond fragility?” Oh, is it ever. Heavy indeed is the crown of blond locks—always has been, but especially lately. Just ask Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, and all the other gone-but-not-forgotten golden-haired beauties who remain in death as famous as ever. The dirty little secret of these pop culture legends: They still move merch. A lot of merch.

Bessette Kennedy, who died at 33 in 1999, is not just a fixture on TikTok and fashion mood boards (Prada even reissued a circa 1995 boxy tote beloved by the late socialite), she is the subject of two recent biographies. Once Upon a Time, by journalist Elizabeth Beller, comes out this May, and Sunita Kumar Nair’s CBK, released in November, is now in its fifth printing.

Meanwhile, Diana, the real heroine of the last season of The Crown, drove record prices at auction for her hand-me-downs, including the “black sheep” sweater, which fetched $1.1 million at Sotheby’s in September. And Monroe—does a year go by without a new portrayal? A stage adaptation of the TV series Smash, about the making of a Marilyn musical, is headed to Broadway this year. How’s that for meta?

The Dead Celebrity Industrial Complex is big business—at least $1.6  billion in 2022, according to