This past May, Kim Kardashian once again set the internet alight when the multi-hyphenate stepped out at the Met Gala in a nude illusion dress once sewn onto Marilyn Monroe’s body ahead of her infamous 1962 performance of “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” at Madison Square Garden. The gown had spent the last 50 years in pristine archival conditions, only to be exposed in a matter of seconds to every contaminant conservationists had warned such a historic garment should avoid.
Much of the public saw that moment, and the gala’s Gilded Age theme – an event that took place as news leaked that the Supreme Court would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision – as proof that late-stage capitalism had officially jumped the shark.