Academic Study - Tumblr Posts
Reblogging with words from the brilliant Chaédria LaBouvier — from her Instagram posts: 1, 2 — for additional context:
“It cannot be unseen that a museum, which posits its very existence is to preserve objects and this calling is so sacred you can’t know what it is that they do and how they do it, allowed a woman to wear the dress so singular the only other person to wear had to be sewn into it.”
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“[...] this is a great time to discuss inequality, pro-choice, the oligarchy, ethics, museums, the Supreme Court, scholars and the fact that we are in hell. [...] I should preface this by saying many of you know me as a Basquiat scholar but! I actually attended film school and in my extra grad year, studied w/Deborah Landis, a legendary costume designer.
Marilyn Monroe’s dress that she wore in 1962 was sketched by a young Bob Mackie and created by Jean-Louis, a fashion and costume designer whose influence of/in Golden Era Hollywood rivals Adrian and Edith Head (my personal favorite). Its made of soufflé silk, a fabric created by the defunct silk weaving and textile company, Bianchini-Fériér, whose archives are now w/ The Design Library in upstate NY. It is impossible to recreate it; it is banned due to its incredibly high flammability. It also created a nude look that was unrivaled before or after, essential during a time when censor laws were stringent and enforced. Before it was banned (the 80s I believe?), Bob Mackie famously used it to create nude looks for Cher. I’ve included a photo of her &Mackie at the Met Gala, ‘74. Monroe was a Dietrich fan and also a heavy student of film history (she loved silent actors) and costume design. I believe she was inspired by this gown (slide 6) worn by Dietrich also designed by Jean-Louis. Monroe was doing what the best fashion does — dialogue w/history while elevating it. Monroe’s dress should’ve never left Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The dress was so custom for Monroe — she was sewn into the dress, totally nude so it would be made only for her, and Jean-Louis hand dyed the silk to match her skin— that there’s no way Kardashian’s body, crash diet starved as it was, would not stress the 60 yr old dress, weight, seams, fabric or one of the 6,000 rhinestones sewn into it.
We are in hell. Not b/c a billionaire on paper wanted to wear Monroe’s dress, but b/c all of the safeguards are failing. A Met gala while the SC quietly tried to gut abortion rights is so apropos, Seneca himself could not write it.”
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“You’re probably like, “what does a dress have to do with abortion rights?” I mean that’s fair. But I would venture that Kardashian’s request — and the fact it was meant and met w/seriousness— is an example of the fact we have no recourse for how to tell people with everything, no. Some things are simply not for sale. And yet. It cannot be unseen that a museum, which posits its very existence is to preserve objects and this calling is so sacred you can’t know what it is that they do and how they do it, allowed a woman to wear the dress so singular the only other person to wear had to be sewn into it. Let us not forget the pole heels which surely crushed a few rhinestones too. A dress is a red flag. And is because we have gutted and devalued what scholars, activists and writers and artists do — who are almost always, when doing their job correctly, the first line of defense in a healthy and functioning society. We live in a society where women are not full citizens, Black people are not full citizens — and we refuse to codify that into law. Yet, corporations, as the Supreme Court declared, are people. The Met Gala is, in this decline and end of empire, a true reflection of the incuriosity which governs our imaginations, dullness which brightness the diamonds, and the obsession w/money when none of it is actually real. None of it. Historians have been crying foul at Kardashian wearing the dress, as they should. But I hope the irony is not lost on my colleagues — it *would* be a museum failing in this ethical responsibility to safeguard a garment which is irreplaceable the formation and ideation of (White)American ideals and ideas of its on sexuality, sensuality and vitality. It should be available to future generations. And how often have museums disregarded their responsibility to the archive and the public — it’s future— for a cheque? And at what point is the point of no return? We will soon find out. I am writing those questions and hopefully answers, but I have to say, this episode of End of Empire could not have been better staged and set designed than if we had been sewn into ourselves. #metgala #metgala2022 #marilynmonroe Citation: @thelingerieaddict
Conservators ‘speechless’ that Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress to Met Gala
[Image: Evan Agostini / Associated Press]
Los Angeles Times — 3 May 2022 | Byline: Nardine Saad, Deborah Vankin
“The Met Gala is now part of the garment’s history — and it didn’t need to be.”
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