art and the
A RETROSPECTIVE ON THE 2022 MET GALA
A DISCUSSION ABOUT KIM KARDASHIAN WEARING MARILYN MONROE’S DRESS AT THE 2022 MET GALA. WHAT DOES THIS ACT AND THE OUTRAGE SURROUNDING IT TELL US ABOUT OUR CULTURE? By Samantha Phan On May 2, 2022, celebrity and reality show icon Kim Kardashian wore one of Marilyn Monroe’s dresses to the 2022 Met Gala. However, this was not just any Marilyn dress. It was the gold, glittery, one-of-a-kind gown she wore during her notorious “Happy Birthday Mr. President” performance. When making the dress, Marilyn had allegedly asked designer Bob Mackie (who was working for Jean Louis) for something truly original. Since then, the dress has been placed in an exhibition for preservation. That is, until Kim Kardashian wore it on the red carpet last May.
In all fairness, she did not wear the dress for long. Kim had apparently changed into a replica soon after, the actual wearing time being a matter of minutes. However, the fabric was about sixty years old and made specifically for Marilyn, resulting in the dress sustaining some damage. Chad Michael Morrisette, the curator for the piece, claimed that the shredded fabric and stress were “irreversible,” causing a large outcry among fashion critics and audiences alike. All this for one, admittedly historic, dress.
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