Preparations are in full swing for the Met Gala, which is all set to take place on the first Monday of May. This year’s theme is ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty’ and we totes can’t wait to see what the lineup looks like this year. While we wait in anticipation, let’s take a look at the most expensive dress and necklace ever worn on the steps of the Met!
Marylin Mornoe’s Dress Worn By Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian is the queen of archival fashion and likes to take vintage dresses on a spin. So for the Met Gala 2022, themed ‘In America: An Anthology of Fashion’, Kim showed her love for archives by wearing the late icon Marilyn Monroe’s custom gown. The dress is also one of the most expensive to be ever worn to the Met gala.
Marlin wore the iconic gown on May 19, 1962, to sing “Happy Birthday, Mr President” to then-President of the US, John F. Kennedy. The dress is made of sheer and marquisette fabric in flesh-colour. The form-fitting backless dress is encrusted with more than 6000 rhinestones that were hand-sewn. Reportedly, the dress was so tight that Marlin had to be sewn in before her performance.
Bob Mackie sketched the design for Jean Louis, the leading fashion designer of the time. And apparently, Louis paid only $1440.20 for its making, which is around $142,92 (Rs 11,71,944) now. Then in 1999, the dress was auctioned in New York and was sold for over $1.26 million. It was in 2016 when Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison, owner and CEO at Ripley Entertainment, purchased the dress for a whopping cost of $4.8 million (Rs 39,23,73,600) at an auction. Currently, the gown is displayed at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum.
Reportedly, the gown also holds the world record of being the most expensive dress sold at an auction. The dress also holds more significance since Marlin wore it three months before her tragic demise. It hasn’t been worn since then, till Kim decided to wear it at the gala, birthing a new controversy at that time. It further accelerated when the rumours of Kim damaging the dress grabbed attention.
Patiala Necklace Worn By Emma Chamberlain
It was not only Kim Kardashian that wore something expensive at the 2022 gala and created controversy. YouTuber Emma Chamberlain joined her wagon too. For the gala, Emma wore a custom Louis Vuitton dress which she paired with a diamond tiara, diamond earrings, and a choker necklace to complete her look. However, it was her exquisite choker that grabbed everyone’s attention. Well, it turns out that the necklace belonged to the Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, and is often called the Patiala Necklace.
In 1889 the 34-year-old Maharaja inherited a 234.65-carat yellow diamond from his father Maharaja Sir Rajinder Singh. Rajinder Singh bought the seventh-largest diamond, De Beers from an exhibition at the Paris Universal. Then he turned the diamond into an heirloom and commissioned Cartier to make a necklace with the De Beers diamond being the centrepiece. It was in 1982 that the necklace was finally made. The necklace featured five rows of platinum chain with 2930 diamonds and some Burmese rubies. And if reports are to be believed, it would cost around $30 million to create it in its original form today.
In 1948, the diamond necklace went missing from Patiala’s royal treasury. However, it was after 32 years that the De Beers diamond suddenly reappeared at Sotheby’s auction in Geneva in 1982. Parts of the necklace were found at an antique shop in London. Later, Cartier bought it and restored the necklace to match the original. The actual value is now unknown, given that the jewels have been replaced.
Now, we can’t wait to see how eventful this year’s Met Gala is going to be!
Featured Image: Instgaram
