Kim Kardashian attends Met Gala wearing Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" dress
CBSN
When Kim Kardashian was envisioning how she would embody this year's Met Gala theme in her wardrobe, she had one question in mind: "What's the most American thing you can think of?" And when she stepped onto the red carpet on Monday night with platinum blonde hair and a dazzling 60-year-old crystal-covered dress, she revealed her answer: Marilyn Monroe.
In embracing this year's theme of "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," Kardashian wore the exact dress that Monroe did when she sang "Happy Birthday" to John F. Kennedy for his 45th birthday in 1962. Monroe's iconic dress, originally bought for an estimated $1,440, was sold for $4.8. million at an auction in 2016 and is currently maintained by Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, according to Vogue.
The gown is now valued at more than $10 million, according to Ripley's.
The story of America can be told through the lyrics of folk music – songs of the Great Depression, the civil rights era, and the social revolutions of the 1960s. As folk singer Pete Seeger put it in 1967, "A song isn't a speech; a song is not an editorial. If a song tries to be an editorial or a speech, often it fails as a song. The best songs tell a story, paint a picture, and leave the conclusion up actually to the listener."