Was Monroe's dress damaged?
Kim Kardashian is facing backlash after photos surfaced showing alleged damage to the Marilyn Monroe dress the reality star sported at the Met Gala on May 2.
Kardashian struck a deal with Ripley's Believe It or Not to wear the gold “Happy Birthday” dress, which has been valued at nearly US$5 million, to the fashion event.
The decision was met with pushback, initially because of Kardashian's comments about losing weight for the event. Conservators at the time also spoke out, saying it was ill-advised to wear any clothing item with so much history.
“I'm frustrated because it sets back what is considered professional treatment for historic costume,” one conservator told the Los Angeles Times.
Now, a Monroe collector is criticizing Kardashian and Ripley's, sharing pictures of the dress before and after the Met Gala that appear to show stress to the fabric and missing crystals.
“Without question, the damage is significant,” read the Instagram account for the Scott Fortner Marilyn Monroe Collection on Monday.
The new photos and videos of the dress were taken by creative director Chad Michael Christian Morrisette, who has a long history of assisting in the archiving of the dress at Ripley's Hollywood, where the dress is housed. On Instagram Tuesday, Morrisette wrote, “This dress is a piece of my life and my heart. To see what @kimkardashian did in the damaging of it is heartbreaking.”
Amanda Joiner, vice-president of licensing and publishing at Ripley Entertainment, released a statement to the Daily Beast. “We always ensured that at any time we felt that the dress was in danger of ripping or we felt uncomfortable about anything, we always had the ability to be able to say we were not going to continue with this,” she said.
The dress was sketched by Bob Mackie and created by Jean Louis. No one other than Kardashian has worn it since Monroe in 1963, when she performed “Happy Birthday” for then-president John F. Kennedy.