Placeholder when loading item promotions
After days of internet outrage over whether Kim Kardashian damaged Marilyn Monroe’s Happy Birthday Mr. President dress by wearing it to the Met Gala earlier this year, Ripley’s Believe It or Not stepped in to smash the claim . The company, which acquired the famous dress a few years ago, announced Thursday that a report on the condition of the garment done in early 2017 found damage similar to what was seen after Kardashian wore it.
The report said that “a number of stitches have been pulled and worn away. No wonder considering how delicate the material is. Hooks and eyes are warped on the back” in addition to other damage.
“From the bottom of the Met steps where Kim put the dress on to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started,” added Ripley executive Amanda Joiner, vice president of publishing and licensing , plus a statement.
A Kardashian representative declined to comment.
The theory that Kardashian damaged the dress — which Monroe wore 60 years earlier when he serenaded President John F. Kennedy to a birthday song — goes back to Chad Michael Morrisette, a collector who saw the dress earlier this week at the Ripley’s location in Los Angeles photographed after spotting what he believed to be new damage to the garment. He shared the photos with another collector, who posted on Instagram as @marilynmonroecollection and shared before and after pictures in support of Morrisette’s claim.
“Was it worth it?” The Instagram caption reads, addressed to Ripley’s.
In tough times, the Met Gala returns to the Gilded era
The company’s decision to loan Kardashian the dress for the May 2 gala in support of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute drew the ire of textile conservators and fashion historians, who felt it was risky and disrespectful of the garment’s iconic nature . Fashion designer Bob Mackie, who drew the sketch for the 1962 Jean Louis dress while working as a Hollywood costume assistant, told Entertainment Weekly after this year’s Met Gala that he thought it was a “big mistake” on Kardashian’s part to wear the dress the red carpet.
Monroe “was a goddess,” Mackie said. “A mad goddess, but a goddess. She was just fabulous. Nobody takes pictures like that. And it was done for her. It was designed for you. Nobody else should be seen in this dress.”
According to Vogue, Monroe’s custom-made dress was sold at auction twice: once in 1999 for more than $1 million as part of her Christie’s estate sale and again in 2016 when it sold for $4.8 million at a Julien’s Auctions event and by Ripley’s was acquired. The magazine stated that the dress is “stored in a darkened vault set at an optimal 68 degrees and 40-50% humidity.” Kardashian said she had to “wear gloves” to try it on.
The dress was partially too small for the garment to fit in time for the Met Gala, according to Kardashian, who said she followed a strict diet afterwards. Vogue reported that she only wore the dress for her red carpet appearance, donning it in a makeshift dressing room at the bottom of the stairs and transforming herself into a replica after walking up the steps. A Ripley’s conservationist, wearing gloves, assisted Kardashian in the process.
Kardashian told Vogue she was “extremely respectful of the dress and its importance to American history.”