Kim Kardashian shared a behind the scenes look at her Marilyn Monroe dress

(Image credit: GC Images)

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Kim Kardashian's Marilyn Monroe dress at the Met Gala, not least because the already petite reality star and entrepreneur revealed she had to lose 16lbs to fit into the dress, so cut carbs and sugar for three weeks (don't worry, she had a pizza and doughnut party at her hotel to make up for it).

Extreme diets aside, there is no denying the beauty of the gown, which the late actress and singer wore to the White House in 1962 when she famously sang 'Happy Birthday' to President John F. Kennedy.

As you can imagine, wearing such an iconic piece of fashion history comes with a lot of responsibilities, so Kim actually wore a decoy dress after the red carpet, to avoid any food or drink spills on the original.

Speaking to Vogue she said: 'I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it.'

Speaking about the whole ensemble and her inspiration, she said: 'The idea really came to me after the gala in September last year. I thought to myself, what would I have done for the American theme if it had not been the Balenciaga look? What’s the most American thing you can think of? And that’s Marilyn Monroe.'

A photo posted by on

Luckily, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum, which bought the dress for $4.8 million in 2015, were happy to lend it to her, and she is the only other person to wear it apart from Marilyn.

Naturally, Kim took to her Instagram to give us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her getting ready for the event. You'll notice she wore white gloves to keep it pristine, and as she was a fair bit shorter than the singer, she wore super high heels to avoid tripping on the hem.

A photo posted by on

That, plus the tightness of the gown, explain why Kim had to take such small steps on the red carpet.

Ripley's also shared a video of Kim trying on the gown for the first time.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.