Videos and photos tell the accurate and truthful story about the damage to Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress. A screenshot from a video posted by Ripley’s, filmed during Kim Kardashian’s April 21 fitting in Orlando (below left), compared with a photo of the back of the dress, taken by ChadMichael Morrisette (below right), on June 12 — 52 days later — verifies that there are several crystals missing from the back of the dress.
Before-and-after photos also show significant tearing and stress to the seams.
Add to that the video shot by Darrell Rooney showing the tear to the right shoulder, together with footage shot by Inside Edition showing a very tattered and frayed kick pleat. None of this damage was evident when the gown was sold to Ripley’s in 2016, nor was it ever pointed out prior to the two fittings and/or being worn by Kim Kardashian on May 2 at the Met Gala. And, to be clear, Kardashian wore the dress at least three times, which has been verified.
“After receiving Kardashian’s request to wear the dress a couple of months ago, we had to make some decisions as far as whether or not we were willing to let Kim borrow the dress,” Joiner said. “We did two different fittings with her. The first one was in L.A. in April and then the second one later in April to see whether or not the dress would fit. The biggest challenge that we had is that we really wanted to make sure that we kept the integrity of the dress and the preservation, because it’s 60 years old, and we feel that it’s such an iconic piece of fashion, both from a historical perspective, but also from a pop culture perspective.”
Video footage of Kim Kardashian’s red carpet walk at the Met Gala lasts for approximately eight minutes from beginning to end. All one has to do is watch the videos of the April 2 fitting, posted by Ripley’s and TMZ (She Just Couldn’t Zip it Up, Problems Squeezing Into Marilyn Dress), to see how the garment was actually treated during the fittings. Quite simply, all of these videos and images verify the real story.
She shouldn’t have dressed before be sure about the seize.
They have damaged the dress, but they simply do not care. They (both) got their publicity:that’s what they care about.
I seriously doubt the people with gloves at the “fitting” had any idea what they were doing. Compare their actions with the way textile conservationists at the V&A or any other REAL museum handle items of significantly less historical value.
Estoy muy enfadada por los daños al singular vestido de Marilyn Monroe, es una violación a su memoria. No se debería haber sacado del museo, y mucho menos que se lo ponga alguien. Es una gran ofensa a todo/as los fans, nadie puede profanar la memoria de tan excelente artista. Es irreparable el daño. Nunca más!!!!
Never ever should have been allowed.Disgusted.
It was a huge error to let Kim wear that iconic dress. That was made forarilyn Monroe’s petite figure, not intended for a wide hip. She was suffocating in the the dress at the Met Gala. I was shocked that she was wearing it. She contaminated the dress.
Total contamination. She is and never will be in the caliber of Marilyn Monroe. Disgusting disrespect. Should never have happened. If you wanna copy, should have made a copy, this was and always will have been made for Marilyn Monroe. Gross tragedy and error on the deciding individuals. MM lives on in our hearts truly forever and always
The dress was only made for Marilyn, it should have never been borrowed by anyone. I’m devasted for Marilyn.
The crass scrambling for licensing dollars overcame any sense of historic or pop-culture preservation on the part of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. This licensing has caused irreparable damage to the company’s already-thin reputation and Congress should hold hearings on this dreadful faux pas instead of wasting months chasing after idiot politicians.