Should historical fashion garments ever be reworn?
The Met Gala is known as being a night of fashion where celebrities parade around in courtier garments. This year, Kim Kardashian sparked controversy for wearing Marilyn Monroe's original 'Happy Birthday' dress. The dress is of historical significance as it marks a particular moment in history.
Why is the dress important?
To understand why this dress sparked so much debate, you first need to understand what value is attributed to it. Marilyn Monroe had the dress personally made for her by French designer Jean Louis. The dress was made famous by Marilyn singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ to John F. Kennedy.
The dress caused controversy at the time as the first nearly naked dress. It was specifically designed for Marilyn as the delicate fabric was dyed to match her exact skin tone and decorated with 2,500 rhinestones. She was even sewn into the dress because of its tight tailoring to her measurements.
The dress is also famed for being one of the most expensive garments sold at action fetching $4.8m in 2016 when it was acquired by its current owners Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum.
Why is it bad for the dress to be worn?
Now we understand the importance of the dress we can begin to consider why it’s so damaging for the garment to be worn. Firstly, the dress is 60 years old. The materials the dress is comprised of will not be in the same state as they were when Maralyn wore the dress. As result, an already delicate dress becomes far more fragile and prone to damage.
Traditionally historical garments are stored in climate-controlled environments where the temperature, humidity and light are monitored. When they are displayed they are carefully handled with controlled lighting to minimise the damage. In essence, even if every precaution was taken with this dress then damage will still occur.
The camera flashes expose the dress to a significant amount of light which can initiate damage which will further degrade the material. Secondly, the oils and heat from the dress being worn can further cause damage and degradation to the dress. An example of this is human sweat which can cause material degradation due to its acidic nature. All of these factors can cause the material to deteriorate and become even more fragile.
Aside from chemical damage, the dress will have also endured significant amounts of mechanical damage. As a result of its age, the seams holding the dress together will be extremely fragile therefore movement will pull at the threads damaging the dress. Likewise, the seam being stepped on will have also caused damage. All of this contributes to the dress being damaged and becoming more fragile.
Should historical garments be worn by anyone?
Many of us wear “historical” garments every day. Vintage fashion has become a popular and sustainable way of buying clothes for many years. Even wearing archived dresses from famous fashion houses is commonplace for many celebrities on red carpets. If this is the case then why did wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress induce such controversy? This can be attributed to two defining features of this dress, the fact that it is one of a kind and it is directly connected to a person of historic significance. The examples above are either garments where there are multiple versions or they do not hold historical value to the general public. Marilyn’s dress represents a moment in American cultural and political history and for this reason, it should be handled and preserved with the utmost care.
Many museum and heritage professionals worry that this event will set a dangerous presidence of the rich and famous wearing or using historical pieces as vanity projects. This may put more press on conservators to loan out garments to the highest bidder.