The secrets behind Marilyn Monroe’s JFK dress.

Sixty years after Marilyn Monroe performed “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” for John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, her classic nude gown has been reintroduced.

Kim Kardashian, 41, wore the gown at Friday night’s Met Gala, making her the only individual other than Marilyn Monroe to do so.

The skin-tight mesh gown with over 6,000 hand-sewn crystals was part of Monroe’s legacy until Anna Strasberg persuaded Christie’s to sell it in 1999.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The garment was purchased for $4.8 million at a Julien’s Auctions event in 2016 by a museum in Florida. The garment was estimated at more than $5 million after taxes and fees, making it the “world’s most costly dress” ever sold at auction.

The magnificent gown is now worth more than $10 million.

According to Ripley’s, when Monroe requested costume designer Jean Louis to create a garment for her, she told him, she want him to construct a genuinely historical outfit, a magnificent dress that’s one-of-a-kind, a dress that only Marilyn Monroe could wear.

As his first job out of college, Bob Mackie sketched the initial drawing.

Monroe couldn’t wear underwear since her gown was unlined. The nude tint complemented her skin tone nicely, and the crystals were artfully arranged to cover her up.

According to reports, Monroe was stitched into the garment seconds before her curtain call because it was too tight.

Kim Kardashian admits to going on a diet to lose 16 pounds in three weeks in order to squeeze into the Met Gala gown.

The famous gown was kept at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! until the reality star arrived at their offices in Orlando, Florida, in late April.

Kardashian, a Monroe devotee, was adamant on wearing the classic gown.

Kardashian expressed that the thought started to her just after the gala in September of last year.  What would she have done for the American theme if it hadn’t been the Balenciaga style, she wondered? What is the most distinctly American thing one can think of? “And that’s Marilyn Monroe.

Obviously, Ripley’s was hesitant to approve the request.

Monroe’s performance in the gown was one of the most memorable moments of her profession, thus much effort has gone into safeguarding the gown and preserving it in its original state.

Kardashian and the Ripley’s crew sought advice from clothing conservationists, appraisers, archivists, and insurance companies on how to pull off the Met Gala appearance.

It was decided that no adjustments to the garment would be made in order to retain it in its current state, which prompted Kardashian’s eyebrow-raising diet.

Kardashian explained on the honorary pathway of the Met that 

This is Marilyn Monroe’s dress. It’s been around for sixty years. She got this notion to put it on and test it on

She added, they were accompanied by armed guards and gloves. It didn’t fit her when she tried it on. She needed to shed 16 pounds.

Kardashian also bleached her hair platinum blond to look like the singer of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”

Kardashian explained to Vogue guest host La La Anthony that it felt like she was rehearsing for a part.

Since preserving the garment was of the highest importance, Kardashian only wore the original gown to the red carpet. She was later transformed into a replica.

However Monroe’s “Happy Birthday” performance in 1962 generated allegations of a romance between Monroe and President John F. Kennedy, the main controversy was the dress. Its barely-there shape was “intended to stun,” according to Ripley’s, and Monroe “deceived organizers and stated she was going to wear a high-necked modest gown.”

The staff at Ripley’s Exhibits and Archives believes this garment is the “most renowned article of apparel from twentieth-century culture,” and it will be on exhibit at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Hollywood for a short time beginning Memorial Day weekend.

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