The stars were out in full force at the 2022 Met Gala, and arguably none shone brighter than the queen of reality TV, Kim Kardashian.
In keeping with Kim's penchant for making historical allusions to icons of fashion's past, this year she decided to pay tribute to one of Hollywood's most iconic divas — the one and only Marilyn Monroe.
Kim told Vogue that the idea came to her last year.
“The idea really came to me after the gala in September last year." she began.
She thought to herself: "What’s the most American thing you can think of? And that’s Marilyn Monroe.”
“For me the most Marilyn Monroe moment is when she sang “Happy Birthday,” to JFK, it was that look.”
I mean, she certainly has a point. Who doesn't remember that?
What proved infinitely more difficult was getting her hair to match Marilyn's platinum blonde look.
Kim explained how she spent the entire day dying her hair. In total, it took her hair and makeup team roughly 14 hours to get it right.
“Nowadays everyone wears sheer dresses, but back then that was not the case,” she continued.
Marilyn Monroe's singing of "Happy Birthday" to JFK has been ingrained in our collective pop culture for seven decades (as most of the things that Monroe did).
The iconic moment has been alluded to, recreated, and spoofed countless times over — in everything from Breaking Bad to Wayne's World.
Ripley's bought the dress for a jaw-dropping $4.8 million ($5 million after auction fees), thus making it the most expensive dress in the world.
"He was able to connect me [with Ripley’s] and that’s how the conversation started,” said Kardashian.
However, it wasn't a walk in the park for Kim K. She had a lot of issues with the dress. When she originally tried on the replica, it fit perfectly, but when the original dress came to her, she couldn't fit in.
“I always thought she was extremely curvy. I imagined I might be smaller in some places where she was bigger and bigger in places where she was smaller. So when it didn’t fit me I wanted to cry because it can’t be altered at all.”
“It was this or nothing,” she says flatly. So, she decided to undergo a strict diet and exercise regime in order to get the look that she wanted.
When she got the result she wanted, she nearly burst into tears. “I wanted to cry tears of joy when it went up,” she said, when noting that the dress ended up fitting like a glove.
It worked out great!
