Ten years ago, fashion folklore told that Anna Wintour had sworn Kim Kardashian would never be invited to the Met Gala, citing concerns that her reality star status would lower the tone of fashion’s most prestigious night.
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However, against the odds in 2013, she got in on a technicality — stepping out as the plus-one of her boyfriend at the time, Kanye West.
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Now, nearly a decade since her highly controversial debut in the shadow of her A-list partner, Kim has masterfully solidified her status as one of the Met’s most exciting guests, bending the rules and breaking the internet in the process.
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Late last month, as anticipation for the first Monday in May began to amp up, whispers were swirling that Kim had her eye set firmly on a slice of Hollywood history: the very dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 when she sang “Happy Birthday” to then-president John F. Kennedy.
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Though the Met is no stranger to multimillion-dollar gowns, Marilyn’s dress would certainly land itself in the history books as one of the most valuable and iconic looks to ever grace the carpet — and worn by a woman who was once supposedly forbidden from attending, no less.
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And so, expectations were high yesterday evening when a bleached-blonde Kim took to the carpet in the highly coveted last slot, draped in Marilyn’s glittering gown.
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The dress — which Kim paired with a white fur coat and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson — was based on a sketch by Bob Mackie for the French Hollywood costume designer Jean-Louis, its sheerness reportedly causing quite the stir when Marilyn donned the risque look 60 years ago.
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“Nowadays everyone wears sheer dresses, but back then that was not the case,” Kim told Vogue ahead of the big night. “In a sense, it’s the original naked dress. That’s why it was so shocking.”
Though Kim certainly didn’t face the same hardships as Marilyn — nor did she rise from “nothing” — their trajectories to becoming two of the most famous women in popular culture incorporate a number of common threads, combating harsh criticism to embrace and capitalize on their sexuality.
And with this in mind, placing Kim — arguably one of the most famous and divisive figures alive — in Marilyn’s dress makes sense. And whether we choose to believe it or not, the discourse and impassioned views on either side speak directly to both women’s ascendancy in pop culture.
