The dress Marilyn Monroe wore to serenade John F Kennedy during his 45th birthday has been permanently damaged by Kim Kardashian, according to a Monroe collector.
Kardashian may have pulled a fast one on fans at this year’s Met Gala. Pictures taken by Scott Fortner, a collector who handles the authentication and verification of Monroe memorabilia, in the last week seemed to show significant damage, with stretched and buckled cloth that appeared to be missing some crystals from its backside.
The dress has sustained significant wear and tear, with many crystals missing. We can also see that there are rips and stretches in it as well.
The Instagram post quotes the owner of the dress, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, who alleged “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 top priority… no alterations were to be made to the dress, and Kim even changed into a replica after the red carpet!”
Kardashian wore a crystal-filled nude silk gown valued at $4.8 million to walk down the red carpet at the event in May. She also donned an accessory – a white fur stole – because she could not fully zip up the dress at the back.
Kardashian found her expectation that the gown would slip on was a little too optimistic before the gala.
“When it didn’t fit me, I wanted to cry because it can’t be altered at all,” she stated.
Then, she underwent an extreme weight-loss routine to attempt to fit into the dress, which included a diet involving centric vegetables, countless times on the treadmill, and wearing a sauna suit twice a day.
“It was such a challenge,” she stated. “It was like a role; I was determined to fit it.”
“Historic garments should not be worn by anybody, public or private figures,” the International Council of Museums. Although the dress was of a private collector’s property, its heritage, they further stated, “must be understood as belonging to humanity” and the artifact “kept preserved for future generations.”
Since its purchase in 2016, the dress has been preserved in a temperature-controlled environment. No one has worn the piece since Monroe until Kardashian.
Before the event appearance, Kardashian justified her decision.
“I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history,” she stated. “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.”
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