This is not OK

So, it happened. After gossip and Chinese whispers abound in the Marilyn online community, the rumours turned out to be true. Kim Kardashian had indeed turned up to the Met Gala wearing Marilyn Monroe's actual Happy Birthday dress.

Instagram and Twitter, the papers and news channels were, and still are at the time of writing, all abuzz. The IT girl of contemporary popular culture has forever indelibly linked herself to one of the world's most famous female icons and indirectly set a dangerous precedent for the treatment and preservation of historic artifacts hereafter.

It seems that with enough money, anything can be bought and one has to wonder just how many noughts were added to the number offered to make Ripley's Believe It Or Not, the current owners of the dress, even contemplate such a move. 

In one fell swoop they have allowed not just the fabric of the dress but the fabric of it's history to be changed forever. Kardashian might have told the press that she had been worried about fitting into it because it couldn't be altered, but the moment it touched her body it was changed. It might always be the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing Happy Birthday to JFK but it is now also a 'costume' that was hired out to a reality TV star so she could borrow it's original owner's legacy for a photo op.

One of the many debates online has been that other items of Marilyn's wardrobe have been worn by different people over the years but not caused the same stir, and indeed this is true. Suzie Kennedy one of the most successful of the Monroe look-a-likes has modeled items worn by Marilyn including personal belongings and film costumes.

Suzie Kennedy in the Some Like it Hot dress

Even in her own lifetime, outfits associated with Marilyn were commandeered by other stars for public events. The famous gold lame gown by William Travilla, for instance, which we are so used to seeing on Marilyn was also worn by Jayne Mansfield, Betty Grable, Jean Craine and Marilyn Maxwell.

Yet there is a major difference in the case of the Happy Birthday dress being worn by another woman. While all the other garments associated with Marilyn are still special and unique, they are nowhere near as culturally significant as the gown she chose to wear to sing to the President. A gown that has direct provenance to Marilyn as the woman who commissioned it and up to now, last wore it. It is globally recognised and represents a moment in American history that elevates it to national treasure status.

The dress last worn in 1962 is made from a delicate fabric, no longer produced, called 'Souffle' and it is hand sewn with thousands of crystals. Ripley's have stated that the gown was not spoiled during the Met Gala event, yet Kevin Jones the curator of the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising says different,

'Whenever you move, something is giving way, even if you can't see it. Under a microscope it would show all these little splits. And over time that would be a big problem'

Conservators have also cried out at the video of Kardashian trying on the dress at Ripley's where it is literally pushed and dragged up her legs, the handler brushing his gloved hands over the crystals in rapid motions to lever the fabric over a body that it wasn't meant to fit.

Marilyn commissioned the Jean Louis design specifically asking for a dress 'that only Marilyn Monroe could wear'. It was constructed using layers of sheer fabric coloured to match her skin tone. Each panel was placed and fitted to Monroe's body to give her the appearance of being nude but for the sparkling crystals. Despite rumours that she had to be sewn into it, the dress really was skin tight and resulted in the zip tearing the fabric moments before Marilyn went on stage to perform. A last minute fix saw a seamstress sewing up the tear while Marilyn wore the dress, forever embedding the legend that she was stitched into it into popular culture. The tear however does illustrate how delicate the fabric was even when the dress was new. 

 

In museum conditions the 60 year old dress is displayed on a muslin dress form in a temperature controlled case with low lighting to preserve it's fragile state. Seeing Kardashian forcing her own shape into the gown is wince inducing, and despite her claims to have shed 16 pounds in three weeks thanks to a crash diet and sauna suits in order to get it to fit (this is a whole other concerning issue that should not have been promoted to her impressionable fans) there was no way the slender garment would fasten over her huge backside, a feature almost as big as her ego. The museum helpfully used an already existing tie to keep the dress in place where the zipper could not be done up

 

Note the gap large across the bottom where the dress cannot be closed

This pretty much sums up Kardashian for me. She turned up on the red carpet literally clothed in another woman's glory. She might have been wearing the most expensive dress ever sold (Ripley's paid 4.8 Million dollars for it), but her ass was still hanging out the back of it. She could hide it with a fur stole all she wanted, but there is no amount of money that could buy her the class or talent of Marilyn Monroe.

Now the dress has had Kardashian's body oil and sweat pressed into it, it's been wondered by many Marilyn fans whether it will still hold the same value. It had been, up until this week, a direct link to Marilyn herself. It was her dress, and whether literally or figuratively it held her DNA, for this reason it should have been sacred. Yet Kardashian's massive sense of entitlement gave her free reign to do as she liked and we have lost a link to the past.

Worse still is that there was a perfect replica (made to fit) that was worn for the actual gala, meaning that the real dress, paraded on the red carpet, need never to have been worn at all. It takes an extremely selfish and ignorant person to do what Kardashian chose to do.

In her last interview, Marilyn asked the reporter just before he left not to make her into a joke. It was important to her that people saw her for the actress she was and the actress she aspired to be. Marilyn had worked hard all her life. She was ambitious and ground breaking. She had so much potential left in her, who knows what she may have achieved. It sickens me to see her legacy being tried on for personal gain and general entertainment. 

Despite her claims to the contrary, Kardashian does not respect the dress or what it stands for, she does not respect or care for Marilyn Monroe, she only cares for her own self aggrandizement. All those who condone her actions, including Ripley's Believe It Or Not and even the Marilyn Monroe Estate are more interested in the financial gain the publicity will bring them. 

It is up to those who really do value history and Marilyn's place in it to continue championing her and remembering who she was and what she did. For me there is only one Marilyn Monroe, a multi faceted fascinating woman who can never be imitated or replaced though some may try.