Ripley’s says famed Monroe dress is fine

After days of outrage online over whether Kim Kardashian damaged Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress by wearing it to the Met Gala earlier this year, Ripley’s Believe It or Not stepped in to squash the claim. The company, which acquired the famous dress several years ago, announced Thursday that a report written on the garment’s condition in early 2017 noted similar damage to what was seen after Kardashian

wore it.

“From the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started in,” Ripley’s executive Amanda Joiner, vice president of publishing and licensing, added in a statement.

A representative for Kardashian declined to comment.

The theory that Kardashian damaged the dress — which Monroe wore 60 years earlier while serenading President John Kennedy with a birthday song — traces back to Chadmichael Morrisette, a collector who photographed the gown earlier this week at the Ripley’s in Los Angeles after spotting what he believed to be new damage to the garment. He shared the photographs with another collector, who circulated before and after images in support of Morrisette’s claim.

The company’s decision to loan Kardashian the frock for the May 2 gala drew the ire of textile conservators and fashion historians who found it risky and disrespectful to the garment’s iconic nature. Fashion designer Bob Mackie, who drew the sketch for the 1962 Jean Louis gown, told Entertainment Weekly that he thought it was a

“big mistake” for Kardashian to wear the dress on the red carpet.