Kylie Jenner Channels Modern Marilyn Monroe in Sparkling Nude Gown

Kylie Jenner is taking Paris Fashion Week by storm, and her latest look stunned in all the right ways. 

The 26-year-old reality star stepped out for Schiaparelli’s spring/summer 2024 runway show wearing a custom, crystal-encrusted halter-neck gown from the French brand that looked as if it were molded to the Kylie Cosmetics founder’s body. The sequin-covered cream, Marilyn Monroe-esque dress featured a backless design, a scooped neckline leading to a keyhole-shaped cutout at the chest, along with subtle corset detailing to accent the mother of two’s figure.

The Schiaparelli gown hugged Jenner’s frame, fanning out at the bottom in a slight train. Jenner paired her gorgeous dress with dazzling earrings, a matching cream-colored pair of the fashion house’s signature toe heels and a luminously tanned glow from Dolce Glow by Isabel Alysa. 

Jenner shared a video to Instagram of her preparing to leave for the show — held at the Italian Embassy in Paris — before heading out to watch her older sister, Kendall Jenner, walk the runway. 

In the video, the Kardashians star gets some last-minute touches to her hair and snaps some pre-show photos as she uses the viral audio from her 2019 Met Gala appearance to command, “OK, let’s go family. It’s showtime! It’s f**king showtime!”  

“It’s Kylie’s era!!!!! Show time baby!” Alysa comments, as Jenner’s close friends, Hailey Bieber and Justine Skye, praise her look. “Sickening,” Skye writes alongside Bieber’s heart-eyes emoji. 

Jenner’s Old Hollywood bombshell look is reminiscent of her big sister’s infamous homage to Monroe at the 2022 Met Gala.

Kim Kardashian took the year’s theme of “Gilded Glamour and White Tie” literally when she made her grand entrance at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in one of Monroe’s most breathtaking looks. The mother of four sparkled in the Jean Louis dress that the late actress wore during her “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” performance.

“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,” the 42-year-old reality star told Vogue at the time. “For me the most Marilyn Monroe moment is when she sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ to JFK, it was that look.”

Kardashian completed the look with a perfectly coiffed, platinum blonde hairdo, telling the outlet that took 14 hours to dye her tresses.

She explained that she was able to land the gown, which sold for $4.8 million at Julien’s Auctions in 2016 and was later acquired by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, thanks to a personal connection. “I’m a big fan of auctions and I own several JFK pieces so I know the owner of Julien’s. He was able to connect me [with Ripley’s] and that’s how the conversation started,” she shared.

The Kardashians star originally tried on a replica for size before Ripley’s Believe It Or Not agreed to loan her the iconic look. It fit perfectly, but after receiving the original via private plane from Orlando, Florida, Kardashian noticed something was amiss. The dress didn’t fit.

“The dress was transported by guards, and I had to wear gloves to try it on,” she explained. “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.”

It was then that Kardashian made it her mission to fit into the dress. With just a few months till the gala, the SKIMS founder started a strict diet. “I looked at them, and I said, give me three weeks,” she said. “And I had to lose 16 pounds down today to be able to fit this. It was such a challenge. It was like a role. I was determined to fit it.”

A month later, she visited the Ripley’s vaults in Orlando for the final fitting, and this time, the dress fit like a glove.

“I wanted to cry tears of joy when it went up,” Kardashian added.

While the mother of four worked for months for her Marilyn Monroe moment, she only ended up wearing the Jean Louis dress for a few minutes, changing into a replica once she made it up the museum’s famous stairs.

“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,” Kardashian told Vogue. “Everything had to be specifically timed and I had to practice walking up the stairs.”

Although Kardashian caused some outrage for wearing the dress, and reports surfaced that the late actress’ iconic gown was damaged when she wore it to the 2022 Met Gala, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! quickly set out to “debunk” the claim.

In a statement posted to its website, the museum noted that it can say “with confidence” that Kardashian wearing the dress did not “cause damage” to the famed garment. 

“A report written on the dress’s condition in early 2017 states, ‘a number of the seams are pulled and worn. This is not surprising given how delicate the material is. There is puckering at the back by the hooks and eyes,’ among other instances of damage,” the statement read.

The statement continued by noting that, in the years since the report was written, the museum “has displayed the historical gown at a number of its attractions around the world.”

“The company understands the risks associated with this, but Ripley’s Believe It or Not! has been collecting notable pop-culture memorabilia, historical items, and unbelievable artifacts for over 100 years,” the statement read. “Our mission is to both entertain and educate visitors and fans, and sparking conversations like the discourse around Marilyn Monroe’s dress does just that. No matter which side of the debate you are on, the historical importance of the dress has not been negated, but rather highlighted. A entirely new group of young people has now been introduced to the legacy of Marilyn Monroe.”

The museum added that, though the decision to let Kardashian don the gown has been “hotly contested,” the reality star “did not, in any way, damage the garment in the short amount of time it was worn at the Met Gala.”

“From the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started in,” said Ripley’s VP of Publishing and Licensing, Amanda Joiner, who was continuously with the dress the day of the Gala and during transport from Orlando to New York.

The museum additionally noted that it would “continue to exhibit the dress — in as-is condition — at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Hollywood through Fall 2022.”

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