Fit For A President: A Blonde Kim Kardashian Takes Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday Mr. President” Dress Out For The Night
She arrived with boyfriend Pete Davidson who was not wearing Vans
Across the weekend, unlikely couple Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson made their first red carpet appearance together at the 2022 White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington D.C.. Kardashian, 41, was a Balenciaga dream in a Demna-designed custom couture gown, one that was embellished with Swarovski crystals and even had a train. By comparison, Davidson, 28, was wearing a Prada suit (tick, tick!) and…Vans sneakers and a pair of black sunglasses that he’d been rocking all week.
Today, the duo arrived at the 2022 Met Gala – and we’re happy to report there were no Vans! – with Kardashian wearing the exact dress Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to then-President John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday in 1962. The translucent gown – which is embellished with over 6000 crystals – was originally designed by Jean-Louis (and Monroe bought the custom piece for a cool USD $1400 all those years ago). It sold at auction in 1999 for over USD $1 million. It then was sold again to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum for for USD $4.8 million. Ripley’s loaned it to Kardashian for the night.
“Nowadays everyone wears sheer dresses, but back then that was not the case,” Kardashian told Vogue. “In a sense, it’s the original naked dress. That’s why it was so shocking.”
“The dress was transported by guards and I had to wear gloves to try it on,” she further explains. “I always thought she was extremely curvy. I imagined I might be smaller in some places where she was bigger and bigger in places where she was smaller. So when it didn’t fit me I wanted to cry because it can’t be altered at all.”
Kardashian told the publication she had to lose weight to fit into the dress, as it was not allowed to be altered at all.
Due to the delicate nature of the garment, and its meaning in American history, Kardashian was also not allowed to wear the dress for the entire duration of the event. As Vogue reports, the star left her hotel in a robe and got changed in a small change room outside the Met Steps. A representative from Ripley’s had white gloves to zip Kardashian into the dress. Once she successfully climbed the stairs, she changed into a replica dress, also supplied by Ripley’s.
How special this dress would have been to wear to a dinner with current President Joe Biden. (Although, sorry Pete, Vans at the White House or the Met are just a no-no.)
See Kardashian’s Met Gala dress from every angle below.