Kim Kardashian has pulled off her fair share of stunning fashion looks throughout her life, but she channeled another famous American look for this year’s Met Gala.
Marilyn Monroe was an actress and model and became one of the most prominent sex symbols in pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s. Similarly, Kim Kardashian is known as one of the biggest sex icons in media today.
Kim was set on wearing Marilyn’s famous shimmering dress to the Met Gala, a dress considered extremely risque when it was originally worn.
Kim Kardashian pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe
Kim shared photos of herself in Marilyn’s dress and pictures of Marilyn when she wore the dress in 1962, captioning the post “Met Gala — In America: An Anthology of Fashion” before continuing.
She wrote, “I am so honored to be wearing the iconic dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to President John F. Kennedy. It is a stunning skintight gown adorned with more than 6,000 hand-sewn crystals by costumier Jean Louis.”
She closed out her post with a thank you to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for allowing her to wear the dress “for the first time since the late Marilyn Monroe wore it.” In her interview with Vogue, Kim revealed that when she tried on the dress, she had to try it on with gloves as the dress is kept in a temperature-controlled vault at the museum.
The dress was so delicate that Ripley’s provided a replica dress for her to change into, which she did after going up the Met Gala steps with Pete. They set up a changing room just for Kim, where someone from Ripley’s helped her out of the dress while wearing gloves.
Although wearing the dress was huge for Kim, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to wear the dress when she first tried it on.
Kim Kardashian strictly dieted to wear dress
Kim expected Marilyn’s dress to fit her pretty well, thinking the dress may be looser in some places and tighter in others, as Marilyn Monroe is portrayed as a rather curvy woman. However, when Kim first tried on the dress, the iconic gown didn’t fit. The replica fit perfectly, but the original Marilyn dress was too small and couldn’t be altered.
She revealed that she strictly dieted for weeks ahead of the event, saying, “I would wear a sauna suit twice a day, run on the treadmill, completely cut out all sugar and all carbs, and just eat the cleanest veggies and protein. I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict.” She lost 16 pounds in about three weeks.
She tried the dress on again, and it fit perfectly, giving her the chance to wear the iconic gown to the Met Gala. The socialite also spent approximately 14 hours dying her hair blonde to complete the look.
When speaking of the dress, many remember the first time Marilyn revealed the dress, and there were audible gasps heard from the crowd. Kim said, “Nowadays everyone wears sheer dresses, but back then, that was not the case. In a sense, it’s the original naked dress. That’s why it was so shocking.”
The Kardashians airs every Thursday on Hulu.