Kim Kardashian and sustainable fashion at the Met Gala
Her dress, worn previously by Marilyn Monroe on President John F Kennedy’s 1962 birthday, was notable for more than one reason
Television celebrity Kim Kardashian caused a stir at the Met Gala — held in New York City on May 2 — when she revealed that she was wearing the iconic dress that Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang Happy Birthday to John F Kennedy in 1962. Not a dress of the same design, but the exact garment.
Although once taboo to wear a dress twice in Hollywood, in recent years it has become the buzzy thing to do. Famous clothes horses from actors Keira Knightley, Joaquin Phoenix to the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton have been deliberate about repeatedly wearing outfits in public to make a point about climate consciousness and reuse. The US throws away up to 11.3 million tons of textile waste each year—around 2,150 pieces of clothing each second, Bloomberg reports.
At the glitzy fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted by Vogue, reality TV actress and businesswoman Kardashian was not alone, either. Other celebrities donning eco-conscious attire included model Emily Ratajkowski, who wore vintage Versace last seen on a 1992 runway. Heiress Ivy Getty wore an Oscar de la Renta dress made from vintage lace owned by her grandmother, the American philanthropist Ann Getty. Meanwhile, pop singer Camila Cabello also wore a gown made from upcycled materials by designer Prabal Gurung.
The theme of the night, which was a
fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute and a celebration of a new exhibit at the museum called “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” was “Gilded Glamour.” It was a reference to America’s Gilded Age, which Cabello said in her red carpet interview was a period of runaway growth that led to our current climate crisis.
Cabello also says she was doing her part by dressing sustainably: “When I heard about the theme of the Gilded Age and that it represented a time of industrialisation, economic growth, and values of materialism, I just thought how ironic it is that all of those things have gotten us to this point where we are now, where it’s the climate crisis,” she adds. “To me,
fashion is a big part of that.”
Shopping the archives rose in popularity during the pandemic with luxury fashion brands, such as Oscar de la Renta, moving into the resale space to sell pre-worn dresses curated from past collections.
With environmental concerns and inflationary pressures growing, head of women’s merchandising for the RealReal Inc Sasha Skoda says sustainable fashion taking centre stage at the gala was in line with trends the luxury consignment marketplace was seeing.
“We’ve seen supply of vintage dresses increase by 124% since last year,” adds Skoda, “and search demand up 68% year to date, year over year.” —