Kim Kardashian has been slammed online for allegedly damaging the dress once worn by Marilyn Monroe as she sang happy birthday to John F Kennedy on his 45th celebration.
The reality star was loaned the dress - which was custom made for Monroe's figure - by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum, following months of planning, writes The Mirror.
Kim donned the nude-coloured dress to the 2022 Met Gala in New York, where she walked the red carpet with boyfriend Pete Davidson.
However, Kim has since been blasted by a Marilyn Monroe collector, who claimed that “permanent damage” has been caused to the gown.
Following the drama, gossip forum Diet Drama have also taken to social media to share new snaps of the dress.
The photos show how the fabric has been stretched around the dress’ back closure.
Many users took to the comments to blast the Kardashians star, with one fuming: "All the money in the world and she couldn’t just make a replica?"
Another said: "This is just so sad. Why couldn’t she just have a designer recreate a similar one with this as its inspiration?!"
A third posted: "Kim the world won't forgive you for this."
However, others took issue with Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! for loaning her the dress.
One wrote: "I don't even blame Kim… I blame the curators of the museum that let this happen. They saw the dress wasn’t a perfect fit and still let her wear it."
A second complained: "Well... they didn't HAVE to lend it, so who's to blame here?"
While another added: "This dress was made for no one except Marilyn. Shame on @ripleysbelieveitornot for getting paid off to lend it to KK."
Kim famously dropped 16 pounds in order to squeeze into the historic gown.
This involved a sugar and carbohydrate-free diet, running on the treadmill and wearing a sauna suit twice a day.
Before the celebration, the reality star told Vogue: “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.”
Meanwhile, the dress’s owner Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! said at the time that “great care was taken to preserve this piece of pop culture history”.
A representative added: “With input from garment conservationists, appraisers, and archivists, the garment’s condition was top priority…
"No alterations were to be made to the dress and Kim even changed into a replica after the red carpet!”
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our weekly Showbiz newsletter here .
