The 2024 Met Gala theme has just been announced by Vogue magazine, the event's producer, and for many on the internet it sounds awfully like a dig at Kim Kardashian.
The theme for the next installment of the fashion event, where Kardashian has been a perennial red carpet mainstay for years, will be "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion."
And many think it is a subtle jab at Kardashian's most infamous Met Gala look—the 2022 incident in which she wore one of Marilyn Monroe's iconic dresses and allegedly ruined the garment in the process.
Sounds like a stretch, right? (No pun intended.) But the statement by Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Costume Institute, which the Met Gala benefits, does make it seem plausible.
Bolton announced that the Gala will be accompanied by an exhibit of "historically significant and aesthetically beautiful [fashion] pieces" from the Institute's permanent collection that are "far too fragile to ever be worn again."
Many hear in that statement echoes of the 2022 Met Gala uproar with Kardashian.
The theme that year was "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," and Kardashian was far and away the most memorable attendee given that she walked the red carpet in the dress Marilyn Monroe wore the night she infamously sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy.
The dress is so fragile and valuable (worth $4.8 million), and was so snug on Kardashian, that she only wore it down the red carpet and up the famous Met Gala steps before changing into a replica.
But according to a Monroe fan account that obtained what it says are actual before-and-after photos of the dress, it appears that Kardashian damaged the garments clasps and many of its rhinestones.
Did Kim Kardashian Damage Marilyn Monroe’s Dress?youtu.be
Kardashian has denied damaging the dress, but her case wasn't helped by behind-the-scenes videos showing that she had so much trouble fitting the dress over her legendarily curvy backside, she almost had to abandon the endeavor entirely.
The Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Museum in Florida, which houses the dress, confirmed that the damage in the photos actually occurred in 2017, but that didn't stop an uproar from quickly ensuing in which Kardashian was accused of ruining a historic, irreplaceable garment.
So on social media, there has been lots of speculation that the 2024 theme is a direct reference to Kardashian's Monroe debacle.
People have also theorized, however, that the theme is merely a reference to how many stars completely ignore the theme every year.
Either way, this new uproar proves that Kardashian's legacy as the Met Gala's hottest guest is secure for now.
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