Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, the company which owns Monroe’s dress and lent it to Kardashian for the May event, said in a statement Thursday that despite claims otherwise, Kardashian “did not, in any way, damage the garment in the short amount of time it was worn at the Met Gala.”
Amanda Joiner, Ripley’s VP of publishing and licensing, accompanied the dress as it was transported from Florida to New York and also while Kardashian was wearing it. She stated the gown remained the same “from the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned.”
Ripley’s stated the dress was slightly damaged at the time the company acquired it through auction in 2016, with “a number of the seams pulled and worn” and “puckering at the back by the hooks and eyes.”
Monroe made the dress famous when she dressed in the gown to sing “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy in 1962. Kardashian only wore the dress for red carpet photos before she changed into a replica she had made for the for the rest of the event.
The gown is now on exhibit at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Hollywood through the fall.
