Being Marilyn Monroe is so nice, Kim Kardashian did it twice.
The "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star is such a big fan of the Hollywood icon that she wore not one, but two dresses belonging to the late actress on the night of the 2022 Met Gala.
Kardashian first stepped out on May 2 at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art clad in the Bob Mackie-designed Jean Louis gown Marilyn famously rocked while singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy in 1962. After walking the red carpet with boyfriend Pete Davidson, she then swapped into a replica of the same dress as not to risk damaging the historic $5 million ensemble.
However, in an Instagram post shared on May 6, Kardashian revealed that she was able to "top off my night" by wearing a second outfit once donned by Marilyn. According to her Instagram post, In researching a look for the Met Gala, Kardashian found out Heritage Auctions owned the green sequined number that the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" star wore when she won an award for World Film Favorite at the 1962 Golden Globes.
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Heritage Auctions said Kardashian erred somewhat in her telling of the story. She reportedly approached Heritage's luxury accessories team about wearing the dress, and they acted as a go-between for Kardashian, reaching out to Barbara Zweig, the actual owner of the dress. Kardashian also thanked Zweig by name in her post.
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When she later learned that her close friend, Four Seasons artistic director Jeff Leatham, was in possession of Marilyn's actual Golden Globe award, the SKIMS mogul wrote she "saw this all as a sign the way that all of the stars aligned."
Captioning photos of herself wearing the Norman Norell gown and holding Marilyn's award in a hotel room, Kardashian added, "It will forever be one of the greatest privileges of my life to be able to channel my inner Marilyn in this way, on such a special night."
Captioning photos of herself wearing the Norman Norell gown and holding Marilyn's award in a hotel room, Kardashian added, "It will forever be one of the greatest privileges of my life to be able to channel my inner Marilyn in this way, on such a special night."
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On her Instagram Stories, Kardashian shared a picture of herself from a pre-gala fitting, during which she wore the dress as a halter neck -- the exact the way Marilyn wore it. But on the night of the Met Gala, Kardashian switched it up by putting her arms through the gown's arm holes.
The slight change-up was noted by Chrissy Teigen, who wrote in the comments section, "Wait so Marilyn didn't put her arms through the armholes!? Iconic lol."
A Vogue interview with Kardashian published earlier this week pointed out that she actually had three Marilyn looks for Met Gala night. Although the reality star hasn't yet shared details of her third dress, she told the outlet that she had planned to wear Marilyn's Golden Globes gown "to eat pizza in my hotel room."
After all, as Kardashian shared in the interview, she lost 16 pounds in three weeks just to fit into the gold number for the gala's red carpet. "I didn't starve myself," she said, "but I was so strict."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that Heritage Auctions does not own the dress in question, and that it instead coordinated with Barbara Zweig, the actual owner of the dress, so that Kardashian could wear it.
