Kim Kardashian Reveals How She Got Ripley’s to Lend Her Marilyn Monroe’s Dress
For a month following this year’s Met Gala, it seemed like all anyone could talk about was Kim Kardashian and the Marilyn Monroe dress. Everyone had an opinion, from Bob Mackie to your next door neighbor, and just when you thought we were done discussing the controversial choice, another headline would bring it into the news again. Now, its been six long months since Kardashian walked up those stories Mets steps in Monroe’s gown, but thanks to the Kardashian’s reality show, which has been drudging up old storylines about the family since its original days on E!, here we are, talking about it again. In the most recent episode of The Kardashians, we got a peak into Kim’s Met prep, which included losing over 15 pounds to make the dress fit (a fact we already knew, even if we didn’t need to), but also actually convincing Ripley’s Believe It or Not! to allow Kardashian to wear the dress at all.
It turns out that, like much of the public, Ripley’s initially did not want to lend Kardashian the dress. A producer on the series revealed that when Kardashian first asked, Ripley’s responded with a “flat out no.” Luckily for Kardashian, she had a secret weapon on her side—her mom. “They weren’t even going to let me try it on until Kris Jenner called,” Kardashian revealed. So, what did Jenner say to Ripley’s to change their mind? Unfortunately, she wouldn’t reveal her secrets. The initial assumption is Jenner offered Ripley’s a whole lot of money, which is the most likely scenario, but perhaps we shouldn’t completely rule out blackmail either. Sometimes, you need to play dirty to get stuff done. Either way, after a conversation with Jenner, Kardashian was allowed to try on the dress, and, after weeks of dieting and working out, she was able to fit into it, with just some slight maneuvering of her famous butt.
A lot of attention has been paid to the work Kardashian put in to fit into Monroe’s dress, but the episode of The Kardashians also highlighted the painstaking process of dying Kardashian’s hair blonde for the event as well. Since the family was embroiled in a court case against Blac Chyna at the time, and therefore had to be seen in public in court just days before the Met, in order to make the blonde hair a surprise, Kardashian had only two days to get it done. Because of that, Kardashian pulled an all-nighter to achieve the Marilyn look.
“All of this—losing weight, dyeing the hair for 30 hours, leaving the hotel in a robe, getting there, changing on the red carpet, just walking to the red carpet, then changing again into a replica of the dress because we can’t risk sitting in it and eating dinner—is all for maybe 10 minutes of my life,” Kardashian said as her hair was filled with foil. Of course, it was just ten minutes on the red carpet, but the moment will no doubt live forever in the minds of the media and the public. Six months later, and we’re still talking about it, and it will likely go down as one of, if not the most, controversial moment in the Met Gala’s history.
