Not everyone was thrilled when Kim Kardashian turned up at this year’s Met Gala in the iconic bedazzled dress that Marilyn Monroe once famously wore to serenade John F Kennedy on his birthday. The dress, much like Monroe’s 1962 birthday performance for the then-US president, became part of the American pop culture hall of fame – only to be aired out by Kardashian for her Met Gala appearance this year.
Critics of the reality star now seem to have legitimate grounds for opposing her sartorial choice – claims of the iconic dress being damaged during the 2022 Met Gala have emerged online.
Although utmost care was taken in the handling of the dress – Time magazine reports that it travelled with guards and was handled with gloves – social media users are claiming that Kardashian’s Met Gala outing damaged the historic outfit.
Kim Kardashian notably lost 16 pounds to fit into the dress since it could not be altered. But even before she could wear the dress, the reality TV star jumped through several hoops to obtain permission for wearing it. She had to reach out to Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Orlando, which bought the Marilyn Monroe dress in 2016 for a staggering $4.8 million, making it the most expensive dress to ever be auctioned.
To preserve this iconic piece of fashion, the museum included a security team that would oversee every move Kardashian made. The reality TV star even changed into a replica after posing for red carpet pics in the original – but it seems like the gown sustained damage even in the few hours it was outside.
The Marilyn Monroe Collection shared a before and after photo of the dress on Instagram. In the ‘after’ photo, the fabric looks stretched and some of the crystals seem to be missing, while others appear to be hanging on by a thread.
“Just in case you missed it… Missing crystals, and some left hanging by a thread,” read the caption from Marilyn Monroe Collection, the world’s largest private collection of Monroe’s personal property and archives.
Kim Kardashian, 41, told Vogue that the idea of wearing a piece of history for the Met Gala came to her when she thought about the most American thing she could represent at the biggest night in fashion.
“I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history. I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it and I won’t be wearing the kind of body makeup I usually do,” she said.
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