JOHNSON COSTUME DRAMAS AT THE MET GALA
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Kim Kardashian managed to make this year’s Costume Institute Gala all about her.
Except, that’s not technically true. Because in order to be the belle of the Met Ball, the billionaire reality TV mogul had to invoke the spirit of the most famous female icon of all time, the original blonde bombshell: Marilyn Monroe.
Unless you’ve managed to avoid all screens and printed matter for the past five days, by now, you must be aware that for the event in New York on Monday – dubbed fashion’s biggest night – Kim donned the same dress that the Some Like it Hot star wore to breathlessly serenade President Kennedy on his 45th birthday 60 years ago.
Well, for about 10 minutes she did. So precious is the crystalencrusted gown, which was bought by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum for $4.8 million in 2016, Kimmy could only keep it on for the red carpet. She had to change into a replica for the remainder of the evening.
Speaking afterwards, the 41-year-old gushed: “I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history. I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it.”
Given that I’ve ripped hems off dresses before I even exited the taxi for a night out, I reckon she had Marilyn’s frock on long enough for me to have tainted it with a lipstick smear at least.
No wonder the mum-of-four looked slightly petrified in the paparazzi pics.
Or maybe that was hunger etched on the star’s face, since
Kim has revealed she had to drop 16lbs in just a few weeks to fit into it. And it still didn’t zip up at the back, hence the white stole.
Still, the stunt got Kim the attention she craves, even if she did have to ride on someone else’s coat (dress) tails.
And at least we got to see her face this time unlike at September’s ball when Kim was covered head-to-toe in black Balenciaga.
Marilyn moment aside, this year’s Met Gala – the second in six months following a couple of Covid cancellations – was the usual mix of the gorgeous, the gaudy and the ‘goodness me!’.
But complaining that the dresses at Vogue editor-inchief Anna Wintour’s big night out are over the top is like saying the plot lines in the Fast And Furious movies are a bit far fetched.
The Gala’s theme was In America: An Anthology of Fashion and the dress code was Gilded Glamour. Pretty straightforward I thought. But there was little reminiscent of the frocks in Julian Fellowes’ similarly named HBO period drama. Still, there were some beautiful looks.
Sarah Jessica Parker always pulls it out of the bag and her Christopher John Rogers design certainly fitted the brief. Likewise, Billie Eilish’s Gucci corseted number would not have looked out of place in novelist Edith Wharton’s 19th-century New York.
But, for me, dress of the night goes to Blake Lively. The Gossip Girl’s Atelier Versace number was inspired by Manhattan architecture, and in the flick of a bow and a change of gloves, the already breathtaking number transformed from shimmering rose gold to aqua blue.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for a two-for one.