Lisa Mugo
Marilyn Monroe’s famous ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’ 1962 dress has reportedly been damaged after Kim Kardashian wore it to the 2022 Met Gala red carpet.
The dress which was designed by French designer Jean Louis was stored in a darkened vault at the optimum 68 degrees and 40-50% humidity. It was valued at a whooping $4.8 million as of 2016 at an auction.
Scott Fortner, a Marilyn Monroe collector has now made claims that the dress has been ruined ever since Kim wore it to the Gala. He even posted pictures and a video of the dress showing evidence of the wear and tear.
“So much for keeping ‘the integrity of the dress and the preservation.’ @ripleysbelieveitornot , was it worth it?” he captioned.
Ripley’s Believe or Not, the team that acquired the dress at an auction revealed that great care was taken to preserve the dress and that they tried to protect it. From putting security to guard it to getting Kim to try on a replica of the dress.
“The dress was never with Kim alone. It was always with a Ripley’s representative. We always ensured that at any time we felt that the dress was in danger of ripping or we felt uncomfortable about anything, we always had the ability to be able to say we were not going to continue with this,” said Ripley’s.
The new images and videos of the dress were taken by creative director Chad Michael Christian Morrisette, who has a history of assisting in the archiving of the dress. The dress appears ripped with a few of the crystals hanging off the threads.
