Kim Kardashian Knew Exactly How People Would React When She Wore Marilyn Monroe’s Dress to Met Gala
Kim Kardashian knows exactly what she is doing.
The reality star and entrepreneur is no stranger to controversy, from her short-lived marriage to Kris Humphries to her efforts to pass the bar exam without going to law school. At times, she even courts the negative press, she admitted to Jonathan Van Meter, author of a new biography of her, Citizen Kim.
Van Meter recently chatted with The Hollywood Reporter about his experience interviewing The Kardashians star over a period of five years. At one point, he reflected on what he felt was Kardashian’s greatest strength.
“She’s not a pop star or an actress. She functions as a businesswoman. There’s no obvious comparison. I think she’s closer to Jane Fonda than Marilyn Monroe,” he said.
The SKIMS founder “likes provoking people,” he added. Case in point: Her decision to wear Monroe’s iconic 1962 Jean Louis gown to the Met Gala in 2022. The silver screen legend donned the figure-hugging dress when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy. The response when Kardashian walked the red carpet in the vintage garment was divided, to say the least.
“She knew wearing Marilyn’s dress [at the 2022 Met Gala] would make people angry. She told me, ‘Of course I knew it,’” Van Meter said.
Kardashian lost 16 pounds in three weeks in order to fit into Monroe’s dress. (Monroe herself had to be sewn into the dress.) But critics still claimed that they’d spotted signs of damage on the garment after Kardashian wore it on the Met Gala red carpet. (She changed into a replica after posing for photos.)
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, which loaned Kardashian the dress, later said that care had been taken with the piece of fashion history.
“From the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started in,” Ripley’s VP of Publishing and Licensing, Amanda Joiner, said in a statement.
Damage or not, some people felt Kardashian wasn’t respecting the dress’ legacy.
[Marilyn] was a goddess. A crazy goddess, but a goddess,” designer Bob Mackie, who drew the original sketch for the dress, told Entertainment Weekly in 2022. “She was just fabulous. Nobody photographs like that. And it was done for her. It was designed for her. Nobody else should be seen in that dress.”
TCM host Alicia Malone told EW that she was concerned about damage to the dress. But she also pointed out that there were certain similarities between Monroe and Kardashian.
“You can draw many parallels between Marilyn Monroe and Kim Kardashian in the way that they’re both very publicity savvy,” she said. “Of course, this was very much a publicity stunt that worked for Kim Kardashian. Marilyn Monroe was someone who also loved to create sensation, as she did with that naked dress. Also, they are women who have changed the ideal beauty of the moment. Marilyn Monroe, when she came in, her curves became very popular during the 1950s. And we see a lot of young women vying to look like Kim Kardashian. For better or worse, she’s changed the ideal body shape for women.”
