Los Angeles / AFP The figure-hugging gown Marilyn Monroe wore to serenade President John F. Kennedy for his 45th birthday smashed its guide price to sell for $4.8 million at auction on Thursday. The flesh-colored dress, adorned with 2,500 hand-stitched crystals, had been expected to fetch between $2-3 million, Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills said. It went to Ripley’s …

  La Paz/ AFP Centuries ago, Spanish colonizers forced their Bolivian servants to wear the puffy skirts that have come to symbolize the country’s “cholitas,” or indigenous women. Today, one local designer is turning the tables with plans to export high-end cholita fashion — blossoming skirts, bowler hats and intricately woven shawls — to Madrid, Paris and beyond. Fresh off …

  Bloomberg After years of steady growth and skyrocketing prices, luxury watchmakers are facing slowing sales in 2016, spurring some to introduce elite models for the first time in steel this year (such as Blancpain’s Villeret Quantieme Annuel GMT) and others to deliver complications such as tourbillons and perpetual calendars at more attractive prices. “This is consistent with watch brands …