Kim Kardashian was aware that some people wouldn't like her wearing Marilyn Monroe's iconic dress at the 2022 Met Gala.
"I'm a little nervous some people will hate, and just be like, 'How dare she think she can step into Marilyn's dress,'" the Skims founder, 42, said during Thursday's episode of The Kardashians. "And I get that."
In conversation with celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton leading up to the big night, the mother of four also detailed the walkup to wearing Monroe's dazzling sequined gown.
"All of this — 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 … like, that's it," she added.
Yet Kim also showed her motives for borrowing the slinky number for the biggest fashion night of the year were based on far more than a desire to make a stir.
"I love that Marilyn was a normal girl that figured it out and became the most famous woman in the entire world," she said. "It's just fascinating."
"That sounds like someone we know," a producer then said off-camera, to which Kim slyly replied: "Who?"
Kim's decision to wear the dress — which Monroe donned in 1962 to serenade President John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday — was not without controversy or drama. It was also something that didn't happen overnight.
"No one trusted us; for years, they would never send samples," Kim said during last week's episode of The Kardashians. "Then once I would get to Paris and try on the samples, they would be like, 'Oh, wait, she actually fits in our stuff.' So I don't know how to convince the guy who owns the original Marilyn dress that I'm a shapeshifter."
Kim eventually lost 16 pounds in 3 weeks, she told Vogue on the gala's red carpet.
THIS NIGHT ✨ https://t.co/2GUxKi9pad
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) November 10, 2022
"It was such a challenge. It was like a [movie] role. I was determined to fit [into] it," she said at the time, defending her weight loss. But beyond criticism for her severe diet, she faced pushback for wearing the iconic garment in the first place. Plus, there were allegations that the dress was damaged after she wore it. (Ripley's denied any damage to the gown.)
"I thought it was a big mistake," designer Bob Mackie told Entertainment Weekly after the Met Gala. "[Marilyn] was a goddess. A crazy goddess, but a goddess. She was just fabulous. Nobody photographs like that. And it was done for her. It was designed for her," he argued. "Nobody else should be seen in that dress."
