The famous dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in 1962 when she sang to President John F. Kennedy on the occasion of his 45e birthday was “permanently” damaged by Kim Kardashian.
Posted yesterday at 5:24 p.m.
The silk dress covered in crystal beads, valued at $4.8 million, was loaned to the social media star at the Met Gala in May. The dress was only to be worn by Kardashian on the red carpet, after which she donned a copy of the garment for the rest of the evening. Nevertheless, photos taken by collector Scott Fortner showed that some fabric fibers had been stretched or torn and some crystal beads had been torn out, while others were hanging by a thread.
Kim Kardashian had first tried on the dress a month before the gala, only to find that the garment was too small. She embarked on an extreme slimming diet that earned her criticism from health officials. However, she was unable to fully unzip the dress, a glitch she masked on the red carpet by wearing a white fur scarf.
The International Council of Museums reacted by stating that “historical clothing should never be worn by anyone, whether they are figures known to the public or not”. While acknowledging that the dress is the property of a private company, the Council maintains that such artifacts should “be preserved for future generations.”
Ripley’s Beleive It Or Not, which has owned the dress since 2016, stores the dress in a controlled environment room. No one had worn the dress after Marilyn Monroe.