The rumours were in fact true. Kim Kardashian really did wear Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress, though not in the way you’d expect.
After several days of rumours, and a very suspicious visit to Ripley’s museum in Orlando (did she and boyfriend Pete Davidson really think her fans wouldn’t notice?), the famed Kardashian stepped out in the Jean Louis design in the final moments of the Met Gala red carpet on May 2.
Walking hand-in-hand with her partner, Kim, whose hair was aptly bleached for the occasion, was every bit the blonde bombshell. Monroe walked so Kim could run.
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But there was something about the dress that was a little bit different. While yes, Kim definitely wore the real-life dress, she took it off after mere minutes and switched to an exact replica.
Why? Because the actual design is extremely fragile—so much so that other than this brief outing, it’s kept under strict conditions at Ripley’s museum in a temperature and humidity controlled room.
“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,” Kim explained to Vogue ahead of the event.
The dress, which is worth an eyewatering $4.8 million, is the world’s most expensive gown sold at auction. It features over six-thousand crystals and is hand-stitched.
When Monroe stepped onto the stage on that fateful evening to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the president, JFK, the crowd gasped for a reason. It clung to Monroe’s famous curves, and we later learned that Monroe had to be sewn into the design, with strictly nothing worn beneath it.
Call it a mirror moment, but Kardashian herself also had issues with the fit of the dress. When Ripley’s agreed to let her wear it, Kim was required to try on a replica first (there’s three replicas of the design, FYI), but she was distressed to find that she didn’t fit into it
“I always thought [Marilyn Monroe] was extremely curvy. I imagined I might be smaller in some places where she was bigger, and bigger in places where she was smaller. So when it didn’t fit me I wanted to cry because it can’t be altered at all,” Kim explained.
But she was determined. Kardashian decided to follow a strict diet to tone her body in the weeks leading to the Met Gala, explaining, “I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict,” she explained.
Lo and behold, Kardashian pulled it off. A month after that initial fitting, Kim fit the gown perfectly.
“I wanted to cry tears of joy when it went up.”
The resulting red carpet look was iconic, to say the least. Suffice to say Kim’s 2022 Met Gala appearance was one for the history books.
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