Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress
One of the more contentious fashion moments of the year came at the Met Gala, with Kardashian wearing the dress that Monroe had worn to serenade John F Kennedy on his 45th birthday. Kardashian was accused of damaging the vintage Bob Mackie dress which, despite its historical stock, was bang-on a present day trend. As Kardashian told Vogue: “Nowadays everyone wears sheer dresses, but back then that was not the case. In a sense, it’s the original naked dress. That’s why it was so shocking.”
For Professor Andrew Groves of the Westminster menswear archive at the University of Westminster, it was more about a supernatural dimension: “Dress curators sometimes speak of clothing being ‘haunted’ by their previous owners,” he tells BBC Culture. “Through being worn, garments are reshaped, moulded, and even stained, forcing, as the philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman noted, the acknowledgement of not only the object present but the body absent.” For Lubin, it was “a Met meta-moment that made us re-think Kim’s stature and legacy as a fashion and cultural icon of our times” – for better or worse.
Big Mule Energy
The artist David Hockney meeting King Charles might seem an unlikely fashion moment – as stylish as the king of swimming pool scenes is. But Hockney’s bright yellow Crocs not only delighted Charles – “Your yellow galoshes! Beautifully chosen,” he apparently commented – they also chimed with the mule-mood music. From Kim Jones sending mules down a catwalk in front of The Pyramids for Dior, to Birkenstocks’ Boston clogs being the most popular shoe of the year on Lyst, this year has been big for backless footwear.
“The popularity of the mule speaks to dress codes being dressed down and comfort becoming a cornerstone of the modern men’s wardrobe,” Jian DeLeon, co-founder of Instagram account Muleboyz, tells BBC Culture. His fellow Muleboy Noah Thomas agrees: “As dress codes continue to change… multi-purpose products are becoming a borderline necessity. This is why the business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back nature of the mule is what makes them perfect for this current climate.”
