After much speculation, Kim Kardashian has shaken the internet to its core once again by donning Marilyn Monroe's iconic nude rhinestone dress at the Met Gala 2022. Yes, that dress.
For weeks, fans were speculating that Kim would wear the famous sheer dress, which Marilyn wore to sing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy in 1962, as part of her Met Gala look, after learning that the ensemble the star meant to pull for the event could not be altered — and the rumors were true.
“The idea really came to me after the gala in September last year. I thought to myself, what would I have done for the American theme if it had not been the Balenciaga look? What’s the most American thing you can think of? And that’s Marilyn Monroe,” Kim told Vogue of the ambitious decision to wear such a cultural icon's dress. The dress was sold at auction for $1 million in 1999, then again for nearly $5 million in 2016 before landing at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Kim got in touch with the museum when she decided she wanted to wear the dress and the rest is Met Gala history.
However, while the dress Kim wore on the red carpet was indeed Marilyn's dress, she couldn't wear the dress for the entire Gala and was asked to change into a replica. The piece was far too precious for body makeup and eating and drinking in. (After all, it is a piece of American history, not a costume.) After her red carpet shots were taken, the dress was transported by guards and handled with extreme care.
To get to the Gala, Kim Kardashian traveled to the Gala in a robe, then changed near the event in a special fitting room set up just for her. Someone from Ripley's helped her get into the gown (in white gloves, of course) until she walked the carpet, and then she changed into a replica also owned by the museum.
Since the piece could absolutely not be altered, Kim went to some pretty extreme and questionable measures to fit into it, including wearing a sauna suit twice a day to lose a total of 16 pounds. "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 said. “Everything had to be specifically timed and I had to practice walking up the stairs.”
The star also bleached her hair back to blonde for the event, spending 14 hours going from her signature deep brunette to a pale blonde shade — and, yes, she admitted on the red carpet that the blonde will be sticking for a while.
Kim styled the dress similar to Marilyn on that much-talked-about night with a white wrap, but instead of singing to the president, she took her boyfriend Pete Davidson.
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