Kim Kardashian Went to Great Lengths for Her Marilyn Monroe Met Gala Transformation

Kim Kardashian stole the show at the 2022 Met Gala!

As usual, Kim was a head turner, this time with her Marilyn Monroe transformation.

She chose to make a splash in the same dress Marilyn wore to serenade President John F. Kennedy with “Happy Birthday” in 1962. According to Vogue, the dress has 6,000 crystals and was based on a Bob Mackie sketch and designed by Jean Louis.

Kim, who walked the red carpet with boyfriend Pete Davidson, had to go to great lengths to pull the look together.

She told Vogue guest reporter La La Anthony that she lost 16 lbs. to fit into the gown, comparing it to “preparing for a role.”

Just days earlier she confessed to Vogue of her platinum-blonde Marilyn ‘do, “I’m spending the whole day just dyeing my hair, 14 hours straight.”

Kim even had to go through Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum — which owns the gown — to get her hands on it. First, she had to try on a replica, which fit perfectly. When the original arrived, however, it didn’t quite fit. “The dress was transported by guards and I had to wear gloves to try it on,” she told Vogue. “I always thought she was extremely curvy. I imagined I might be smaller in some places where she was bigger and bigger in places where she was smaller. So when it didn’t fit me I wanted to cry because it can’t be altered at all.”

TMZ later shared a video of her dress fitting, revealing she used a white fur stole to cover the fact that they could never quite zip up the back. Pete was also there and even held her hand at one point as her team struggled to get the dress on her. Watch the video here!

Kardashian was set on the Monroe dress, so she decided to lose weight. “I would wear a sauna suit twice a day, run on the treadmill, completely cut out all sugar and all carbs, and just eat the cleanest veggies and protein,” she explained. “I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict.”

When it was time to try it on one last time, the dress fit!  “I wanted to cry tears of joy when it went up,” she said.

Kim only wore the piece on the red carpet, trading it for a replica once she went inside. “I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history. I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it, and I won’t be wearing the kind of body makeup I usually do. Everything had to be specifically timed and I had to practice walking up the stairs.”