- NEWS
- COMPETITION
- DIRECTORY
The Marilyn Monroe dress Kim Kardashian wore to the Met Gala has allegedly been damaged.
The crystal-studded gown, which the Hollywood icon wore to sing happy birthday to U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962, was loaned to Kim by executives at Ripley's Believe It or Not!, who own the historic piece.
Due to the age and provenance of the dress, Kim had to lose 16 pounds to fit into it as no alterations could be made. She also changed into a replica after the red carpet.
However, despite all the efforts to preserve the 60-year-old gown, officials at Scott Fortner's The Marilyn Monroe Collection, the world’s largest private collection of Marilyn memorabilia, have claimed it suffered some damage during the Met Gala outing.
On Monday, they shared a picture of the dress taken over the weekend at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Hollywood attraction, where it is currently on display. The image shows missing crystals and stretched fabric near the clasps at the back of the gown.
"So much for keeping 'the integrity of the dress and the preservation.' @ripleysbelieveitornot , was it worth it?" the caption reads, followed by recent quotes from Ripley's officials explaining their preservation efforts for Kim's red carpet appearance.
They then posted 'before' and 'after' photos with the caption, "Just in case you missed it… Missing crystals, and some left hanging by a thread", and a video taken of the dress in 2016.
"To anyone who may be questioning the actual condition of Marilyn Monroe’s 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' dress prior to being purchased by @ripleysbelieveitornot or implying that low quality photos of the dress were shared to somehow make the newly discovered damage to the dress seem worse than it actually is, this is 4K video that I took of the gown while it was on display at @juliens_auctions in November of 2016. Without question, the damage is significant," the caption reads.
Ripley's officials and Kim are yet to respond to the damage allegations.