Our Take On Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala Look
Leading up to the Met Gala, there is much anticipation and theorizing around what certain celebrities will to wear. This past year, Kim Kardashian entered the Met Gala red carpet in an iconic Marilyn Monroe dress, in which she wore to sing happy birthday to John F. Kennedy in 1962. Many celebrities pay tribute to past looks or fashion icons in their Met Gala choices, but Kim Kardashian took this to another level and chose the very dress Monroe herself was sewn, from its display in Ripley’s Believe it or Not! museum. Since her appearance in the dress, there has been heated debate about whether or not Kardashian caused damage to the gown, and whether it was appropriate to wear the iconic garment, one of Monroe’s final looks before her death. Kim Kardashian was even further scrutinized following this event after discussing the diet she had to undergo to fit into the dress in red carpet interviews. Taking an iconic piece of history from its display all while broadcasting harmful messages about body image and diet culture is not what the Met Gala is supposed to stand for.
The Met Gala was in May, but pictures on Twitter and articles from various news outlets are still circling the internet as new evidence surfaces. Both Kim Kardashian and Ripley’s Believe it or Not! issued statements that Kardashian did not damage the dress, and the torn seams and missing jewels were there prior to Kardashian’s debut in the garment. Ripley's claims to have documents of damages to the dress when they first bought it at auction in 2016. On the other hand, several sources who had previously dealt with the dress came forward stating that this was in fact a lie, and these damages were not there when Ripley's purchased the dress in 2016 for $4.8 million. Kardashian and Ripley's defended themselves by emphasizing that the dress was only worn for a matter of minutes and the condition of the dress was their top priority. Chad-Michael Morrisette, a museum and costume exhibit curator and expert who spoke out on the matter, stated that doing anything in a garment 60 years old will damage it, therefore wearing it even for a matter of minutes is not prioritizing the meaningful piece of American history. Morrisette even discusses being extremely emotional after seeing the dress for the first time post-Met Gala appearance, emphasizing how it is now ruined, completely unnecessarily. Additional evidence of the damage was posted to the Marilyn Monroe Collection Instagram by Scott Fronter, an expert in Monroe memorabilia, including side-by-side before and after photos.
Kim Kardashian should not have worn Marilyn Monroe's dress to the Met Gala. Although some may argue she was paying tribute to Monroe, these were not her true intentions. If Kardashian really wanted to pay her respects to the fashion and pop culture icon, she wouldn’t have even considered wearing the garment. Damages to the dress became a risk the second it was taken from its display. Whether the garment is damaged or not, Kardashian and Ripley’s did this for their own personal gains of publicity, not to pay tribute to Marilyn Monroe.
On top of damaging a piece of American history, Kim K also boasted about how she lost 16 pounds in just 3 weeks to fit into the iconic dress. She goes even further by talking about how she was extremely restrictive, only eating vegetables and protein, and even surviving off just tomatoes for a period of time. For the people sitting at home, seeing Kardashian on their TV looking as beautiful as ever at one of the most glamorous, important events of the year makes her words feel like a call to action to eat only tomatoes.
‘Live from E!’ reported the 2022 Met Gala red carpet was the most streamed in history on their platform. There were a record 151 million video minutes watched across their different platforms. Given Kim Kardashian’s prominent place in pop culture, it is safe to say the majority of these viewers watched Kardashian’s walk down the red carpet and her interviews discussing her restrictive diet. To be able to reach this many people and use that time and platform to discuss weight loss is extremely ignorant. In an interview with The New York Times, Kardashian defended herself by saying that she wasn’t telling everyone to lose this amount of weight in a short period of time. For someone in this position in society, someone highly worshiped and closely watched, to think her words don’t have these effects just because she didn’t ‘mean it,’ is incredibly naive. The entire Kardashian family arguably changed people’s view of the ‘ideal’ body shape; people are obsessed with what they wear, eat, and do, and most things that they wear, eat and do, become a trend. This is an incredibly challenging power to hold but nonetheless needs to be recognized and respected as a power by Kim Kardashian, not played off by statements claiming it wasn’t her intention for people to follow her actions.
