Kim Kardashian Damaging Marilyn Monroe's Dress Controversy

About

Kim Kardashian Damaging Marilyn Monroe's Dress refers to a controversy regarding Kim Kardashian damaging a historic dress worn by Marilyn Monroe during her rendition of "Happy Birthday" for former U.S. President John F. Kennedy (JFK). After being worn by Kim K at the 2022 MET Gala, before-and-after photos uploaded by the Marilyn Monroe Collection and Instagram user 1morrisette surfaced showing a damaged zipper and several missing crystals. The development sparked outrage and memes online, with many claiming she "ruined" it. Representatives of Ripley's Believe It Or Not! later denounced the claims, stating that Kardashian did not damage it.

History

On May 2nd, 2022, Kim Kardashian attended the 2022 MET Gala which produced many memes on its own accord. On the same day as the event, Kardashian posted a tweet^[1] stating that she was "honored to be wearing the iconic dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 to sing 'Happy Birthday' to President John F. Kennedy." She went on to write, "It is a stunning skintight gown adorned with more than 6,000 hand-sewn crystals by Jean Louis." The tweet also attached three pictures of her wearing the dress. Over the course of one month, the tweet received roughly 129,600 likes (shown below).

Kim Kardashian officially borrowed the dress from the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum in Los Angeles, stated by her in a reply^[2] to her tweet also posted on May 2nd.

Both after and during the MET Gala event, people online reacted to Kardashian's dress. Some were positive about it, like Twitter^[3] user myeternalsuns who joked about Kardashian looking better than her sisters in a tweet that received roughly 18,300 likes in one month (shown below, left). Others started to question Kardashian's use of the dress, like Twitter^[4] user vlaura_a who expressed disbelief in a reply by comparing the measurements of Monroe and Kardashian, ultimately questioning how Kardashian fit inside the dress. The reply received over 800 likes in one month (shown below, right).

On May 4th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user her_khumalo posted a reply to Kardashian's May 2nd tweet^[1] that attached a clip from the 2022 season of Keeping Up with the Kardashian's, wherein, Kardashian is at the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum getting the dress fitted with boyfriend Pete Davidson accompanying her. Within the clip, the dress is not fitting her properly, splitting at the bottom and barely fitting over the backside. Over the course of one month, her_khumalo's reply received roughly 1.6 million views and 5,700 likes (shown below).

Oh my gosh pic.twitter.com/8MgGrV43TP

— Stan upppppp!! (@her_khumalo) May 4, 2022

On May 5th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user flyingb66 replied to her_khumalo's video, stating, "You obviously didn’t fit into this dress. Why body shame women and this beautiful historical gown for your own vanity. Marilyn had class, something you will never ever have," earning roughly 1,200 likes for the tweet over the course of one month (shown below, left).

Additionally, on May 4th, 2022, the Los Angeles Times posted a tweet^[7] that stated, "she didn’t initially fit into the dress [and] shed 16 pounds for the occasion because she wasn’t allowed to alter the gown and reportedly had to drape a fur stole over the partially fastened zipper." An image of Kardashian and Davidson at the event was included, showcasing the fur stole that was covering the damaged seam. Over the course of one month, the tweet received roughly 1,300 likes (shown below, center and right).

June 2022 Before-And-After Photos

On June 13th, 2022, the official Instagram page of the Marilyn Monroe Collection shared multiple posts including before-and-after photos of Marilyn Monroe's dress pre and post-Kardashian wearing it at the MET Gala. The primary post^[7] showed a side-by-side comparison received roughly 20,400 likes over the course of two days (shown below).

In the post's description, "Was it worth it?" was addressed to the Ripley Believe It Or Not! museum. Also, Instagram user 1morrisette was tagged, being the primary caretaker of the dress. 1morrisette uploaded his own post^[8] about the dress on June 14th, including multiple photos of him with the artifact, writing in the description, "This dress is a piece of my life and my heart. To see what @kimkardashian did in the damaging of it is heartbreaking." His post received roughly 2,300 likes in one day.

On June 13th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user fiImgal reposted the Marilyn Monroe Collection post,^[7] captioning it, "oh my god." and earning roughly 232,800 likes in two days (shown below). Later in the day on June 13th, the Twitter^[10] account PopCrave posted its own tweet about the development, earning roughly 307,100 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

Reactions and Memes

Internet users started to react to the development with some finding what Kardashian did despicable. For instance, Twitter^[11] user samueljdonovan posted a long-form reply on June 13th, starting her thought with, "As someone who thinks the kardashians are the quintessential representation of the rotting societal structure of America…" The reply received over 980 likes in two days (shown below, left). Others did not find the situation that dire, like Twitter^[12] user JoeyMillsXXX, who posted a reply on June 13th stating, "Dude it sits in a Ridley believe it or not. It’s really not that important," earning roughly 1,800 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Memetic discourse also surfaced into the days that followed. A common trend that formed was meme creators referencing what dresses Kardashian had the right to damage. For instance, on June 14th, Twitter^[13] user piercespears posted a quote retweet that offered a Jennifer Lopez dress as ruinable, earning roughly 46,800 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also on June 14th, Twitter^[14] user captioned a photo of Harper Finkle's "marker dress" on Wizards of Waverly Place with, "Everybody tell Kim K she better keep her paws off this historic piece🤝," earning roughly 7,700 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Ripley's Says Kim Kardashian Did Not Damage The Dress

On June 16th, 2022, a representative of Ripley's Believe It Or Not! released a statement denouncing the claims that Kardashian had damaged the dress. The anonymous rep bought the dress for $4.8 million in 2016 and said in statements given to TMZ^[15] that, "A report written on the dress’s condition in early 2017 states, 'a number of the seams are pulled and worn. This is not surprising given how delicate the material is. There is puckering at the back by the hooks and eyes,' among other instances of damage." This essentially displaced the timeline of when the before-and-after photos were taken.

Various Examples

kim kardashian trying on marylin monroes dress pic.twitter.com/CKj31P8THE

— EFRAIN (@TUENEMIGOEFRAIN) June 13, 2022

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External References