Fashion Bite

Sixty years after Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” for John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, her iconic nude dress was unearthed at the 2022 Met Gala Red Carpet event donned by Kim Kardashian – making her the only person besides Monroe to ever wear the dress.

The reality star and shape wear maven borrowed the sparkly beige gown that was made for Monroe so exclusively that it was sown on top of her body to make it as form-fitting as it can get in 1962 to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy from Orlando’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum. Auctioned at $5 million, the historic nude dress happens to be the most expensive vintage dress to date and holds a rather sacred place in the eyes of the true Monroe fans. When Monroe asked costume designer Jean Louis to make a dress for her, she told him, “I want you to design a truly historical dress, a dazzling dress that’s one-of-a-kind, a dress that only Marilyn Monroe could wear,” according to Ripley’s.

Controversy also doubled when the reality star posted a photo of her claiming to wear Marilyn Monroe’s Norman Norell dress that she wore to the Golden Globes in 1962 —where she received the Henrietta Award For World Film Favourite, but fans and historians are still speculating if the dress she’s posing in is a replica for her source was changed from Juliens Auctions to Heritage Auctions in her Instagram post. The mogul also claimed to be holding the same award from 1962 that Monroe had won that was owned by a friend of hers, the floral designer Jeff Leatham, who purchased it at auction in 2018.

In the aftermath of the Gala, ire has started to brew forth amongst the fashion archivist community: several conservators of fragile garments, including the former Head Conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, have expressed outrage that Kardashian went so far as to pull the original gown out of storage and wear it, thereby potentially damaging the garment.

The dress was loaned to Kim Kardashian with a set of instructions

Scoring a dress as iconic as this did not come easy for Kim Kardashian, the dress with a set of lengthy instructions that were to be followed before the dress was returned back to the museum. It prohibited her from making any alterations whatsoever to the precious piece, leading the star to go on a grueling diet and exercise regimen to ensure it would fit. The dress was only allowed to be worn at the Red Carpet up to the stairs and Kim slipped into a replica of the dress for the rest of the event, she wasn’t allowed to sit or eat in the loaned dress. Among the points agreed upon in allowing her to wear the dress was that a Ripley representative needed to remain with the dress at all times and Kim requested that it be a woman given the private nature of stepping into the dress.

Kim had to lose 16lbs to fit into the dress

Revealing it all to La La Anthony at the Red Carpet, Kim shared how she did not fit into the dress the first time she tried it on: “I tried it on, and it didn’t fit me, I said, ‘Give me like three weeks.’ And I had to lose 16 pounds down today to be able to fit this. It was such a challenge. It was like a role. I was determined to fit it.”

“Since I haven’t eaten carbs or sugar in about three weeks, we’re eating a pizza and donut party back at the hotel,” she added. She provided even more detail about her speedy weight loss in a longer interview for Vogue’s website, saying, “I would wear a sauna suit twice a day, run on the treadmill, completely cut out all sugar and all carbs, and just eat the cleanest veggies and protein. I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict.”

The crash dieting has also upset a ton of fans as they believe that Kim was disrespecting Monroe, who loved flaunting her curves and was touted as a plus-size icon back in the day. Often seen promoting appetite suppressants on Instagram, Kim has a mixed history with body positivity and it appeared disappointing to see her continue this red-carpet trend, especially because she’s describing what essentially amounts to a three-week crash diet. Kim was essentially reprimanded by fans who felt that she should do a better job at how she promotes an urgency for weight loss given her following and status.

Was it necessary?

As controversy swirls in the days afterward — with pointed criticism from museum curators about the ethics of a collecting institution loaning out a piece of fashion history to be worn on a red carpet, fashion historians, Monroe fans, art conservators and the internet had some very strong opinions on the matter. The videos of conservators dissecting the videos from the dressing room have been making rounds on social media where they talk about the visible stress wrinkles across the hip and how Kim kept stepping on the hem at the stairs potentially causing insurmountable damage to the hem. People also argued how the use of cotton gloves when handling and trying to fit Kim into the dress could have snagged on beads, and embellishments.

A lot of people found the overall look to be straight-up boring, missing that sweet spot and the aura that Marilyn Monroe had, the look was in no way reminiscent of the icon despite Kim dyeing her hair blonde which took her 14 tedious hours. And this leaves us questioning, was it really necessary to take the iconic dress out for a spin when you had an exact replica of the dress to wear?

Many would argue that this was a great opportunity for Kim Kardashian to be the center of attention, but when has Kim ever not been the center of attention? Anything she could’ve chosen to worn would have gotten people talking, then why go after a dress that holds this much of significance?

And many could see their point, they were aghast that such a fragile dress had been removed from the vault where it was carefully preserved at a certain temperature over a certain material that would keep its integrity intact and to then see it worn by a reality star, who, even if she didn’t bust a seam, was exposing the dress to any number of elements that could damage it. What kind of person thinks one night on a red carpet is more important than preserving history?

But at the same time, the dress did exactly what the museum had thought of, it bought the otherw3ise forgotten dress to the limelight. Once back to the museum, the dress will generate thousands of dollars in sales from fans of both the women, be it for critique, and be it for admiring, people will be visiting both ways.

Even more outrage at the MET Gala: Emma Chamberlain’s Patiala Necklace

This year’s MET Gala’s biggest snafu was touted to be Kim Kardashian wearing the iconic Marilyn Monroe dress. However, as the reality TV star stole the limelight for damaging the historic ensemble, what many didn’t notice was how Emma Chamberlain opted for a rare piece of jewellery to go with her Louis Vuitton figure-hugging dress at this year’s MET and it did not seem to go down well with the general public.

The Maharaja of Patiala had commissioned Cartier to make the heirloom piece with the De Beers diamond as the centrepiece and it was completed around 1928. It was famously known as the Patiala Necklace. It went missing for a certain period of time before reappearing in London and being “re-bought” by Cartier. However, the allegations of the choker having been “stolen” at some point have not so far been substantiated.

Whatever side you may be on, you cannot deny how the two feats have proven to be very on-theme because nothing screams gilded glamour quite like expropriation.