Blake Lively was the star of Met Gala 2022 with her immaculate tribute to the Statue of Liberty, but it was Kim Kardashian who made it to the headlines. The reality star arrived on the red carpet wearing the iconic Marilyn Monroe dress and it caught everyone’s attention. It was the very dress the legendary actress wore as she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962, and now Kim K is said to have ruined it.
The Marilyn Monroe Collection took to Instagram to share a before and after photo of the Jean Louis dress. The two pictures showed how some of the crystals were missing from the dress, while others were hanging by a thread. The post further referred to an old post where they talked in detail about the comprehensive efforts made by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum to preserve the gown. To ensure that the iconic dress wasn’t damaged during the event, a security team was sent to oversee Kardashian’s every move, and a representative who was allowed to pull the plug whenever they wished was set up too.
“Great care was taken to preserve this piece of pop culture history. With input from garment conservationists, appraisers, and archivists, the garment’s condition was the top priority. Believe It or Not! no alterations were to be made to the dress and Kim even changed into a replica after the red carpet!,” the post read.
“We basically had many conversations with Kim and her team and put a lot of requirements in place with security and with the handling of the dress,” Amanda Joiner, a vice president of licensing and publishing at Ripley’s, said to the Daily Beast.
The post went viral in no time, with people taking it to Twitter to express their anger toward Kim Kardashian. They were furious that an iconic dress was ruined by the business mogul.
Check out the angry tweets here:
Kim Kardashian took great measures to fit into the dress. She underwent a dramatic weight loss for the same. “I tried it on and it didn’t fit me,” she said. “I said, ‘Give me three weeks.’ I had to lose 16 pounds down today.”
She, however, received a lot of flak even then for wearing the dress and promoting starving culture. Bob Mackie, the designer who worked as an assistant to Jean Louis and was the brainchild behind the original sketch of Marilyn’s gown, told EW that it was “a big mistake” to allow the reality star to wear the dress in the first place.
(Featured Image Credits: Instagram @kimkardashian)
