Kim Kardashian Puts Spotlight on Sustainable Fashion at Met Gala

(Bloomberg) -- Kim Kardashian caused a stir at the Met Gala last night when she revealed that she was wearing the iconic dress that Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy in 1962. Not a dress of the same design—the exact garment.

Although once taboo to wear a dress twice in Hollywood, in recent years it's become the buzzy thing to do. Famous clothes horses from Keira Knightley to Joaquin Phoenix to Kate Middleton have been deliberate about repeatedly wearing outfits in public to make a point about climate consciousness and reuse. The U.S. throws away up to 11.3 million tons of textile waste each year—around 2,150 pieces of clothing each second, Bloomberg reports.

And at the glitzy fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted by Vogue magazine, reality TV actress Kardashian was not alone, either.

Other celebrities donning eco-conscious attire included model Emily Ratajkowski, who wore vintage Versace last seen on a 1992 runway. Heiress Ivy Getty wore an Oscar de la Renta dress made from vintage lace owned by her grandmother, Ann Getty. And Camila Cabello wore a gown made from upcycled materials by designer Prabal Gurung.

The theme of the night, which was a fundraiser for the Met's Costume Institute and a celebration of a new exhibit at the museum called “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” was “Gilded Glamour.” It was a reference to America's Gilded Age, which Cabello said in her red carpet interview was a period of runaway growth that led to our current climate crisis. The pop singer felt she was doing her part by dressing sustainably: “When I heard about the theme of the Gilded Age and that it represented a time of industrialization, economic growth, and values of materialism, I just thought how ironic it is that all of those things have gotten us to this point where we are now, where it's the climate crisis,” she said. “To me, fashion is a big part of that.”

Shopping the archives rose in popularity during the pandemic with luxury fashion brands, such as Oscar de la Renta, moving into the resale space to sell pre-worn dresses curated from past collections.

With environmental concerns and inflationary pressures growing, Sasha Skoda, head of women's merchandising for the RealReal Inc., said sustainable fashion taking center stage at the gala was in line with trends the luxury consignment marketplace was seeing. “We've seen supply of vintage dresses increase by 124% since last year,” she said, “and search demand up 68% year to date, year over year.”