It is common knowledge that clothing trends cycle every few decades. Maybe you’ve been shopping for back-to-school clothes at the mall and noticed the display windows stocked with Y2K clothing like low-waisted jeans and chunky high-heeled sandals. Possibly, you’ve been cultivating a Pinterest board for clothing inspiration and found images from the 1990s of streetwear that fit perfectly with the aesthetic that you desire to possess. Either way, the appearance of vintage clothing styles in the current couture is inevitable, especially due to the internet rotating through popular culture faster than ever before.
Aside from new clothing that appears old, purchasing actual used pieces has gained interest in recent years. Thrifting has become a popular pastime for teenagers due to the rise of TikTok and the recent awareness of how human consumption affects the environment. The thrift store industry is currently worth around $14 billion, and had a 4.5% increase in profit in the past five years, even with the COVID-19 pandemic occurrence. At the moment, shopping vintage is a popular way to find unique and inexpensive clothing that has come back into vogue.
While it isn’t uncommon for ordinary civilians to wear pre-owned pieces of clothing, these recent sustainability trends do not necessarily translate into the lives of the rich and famous, who spend exorbitant sums of money on what they wear. Similar to the majority of famous names that dominate our pop culture news headlines, Taylor Swift reportedly spends from $10,000 to $40,000 per outfit she wears for formal events. Undeniably, not the same prices you would find while purchasing second-hand.
However, celebrities wearing iconic vintage pieces are not uncommon. In a way, this is their own method of acquiring second-hand garments, only lacking the discounted prices. A relatively well-known example of the previous is Kim Kardashian’s 2022 Met Gala sport of the “Happy Birthday Mr. President” 1962 gown originally worn by Marilyn Monroe. Initially, the gown was designed for Monroe’s exact measurements, and she had to be sewn into the garment because it was specifically created skin-tight for her body. It was sewn for then-president John F. Kennedy’s forty-fifth birthday celebration, where Monroe sang her own rendition of the Happy Birthday song.
In 2016, the dress was sold for the most money any dress has ever sold for at an auction: a staggering $5 million. The designer piece was not worn by anyone besides Monroe until 2022 when Kardashian donned it at the Met Gala to fit the theme of “Gilded Glamour.” The official owner of the gown, Jimmy Pattison (the owner of Ripley’s and Guinness World Records), and his staff initially did not approve of her wearing the dress, but upon multiple requests from the Kardashian family, they caved to the pressure. Shortly following the extravagant event where she wore the dress, accusations arose concerning Kardashian and her speculatively damaging the piece of history during her walk down the red carpet. Nonetheless, no confirmed evidence was revealed saying that she did rip or alter the original in any way.
Aside from the defacement accusations, many negative comments appeared concerning whether it was ethically correct for the celebrity to be able to wear such an iconic piece of clothing sixty years following its construction. Considering that the dress was created for Marilyn, many believe that she should have been the sole person allowed to sport it. Especially considering that Kardashian had to lose sixteen pounds in a mere three weeks solely to be able to fit into the gown, a task extremely dangerous and damaging to her health. Why not just tailor an entirely new dress that fits correctly? One that will not place such a famous gown at the stake of ruin?
While controversy came to light following the 2022 Met Gala, the idea of reusing a past article of clothing is notable and should be followed more frequently in Hollywood. All too often, celebrities spend preposterous sums of money for garments that will be worn once, and then either auctioned off or placed in storage, never again to see the light of day. On average, Met Gala dresses fall within the price range of five thousand to thirty-five thousand dollars to fabricate, the latter being more than half of the average American yearly salary. The prospect of re-wearing a previously curated and designed outfit is one that could solve the issue of the dresses merely collecting dust after being oh-so delicately crafted and paid for, and allow them to once again be admired and fawned over. Yet, the ethicality of wearing pieces as iconic as Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress is still debated, even though the idea of not creating an entirely new piece of clothing to be worn once is one that could be beneficial if normalized.
Kardashian wanted to wear something dazzling and eye-catching, something that was out of the ordinary, standing out in a location filled with hundreds of others dressed extravagantly and unusually. While these are understandable impulses and make sense for a star who wields as much power as her, certain limitations should be imposed concerning the care of illustrious attire in order to prevent further mutation to items that hold so many memories of the past. Nevertheless, the use of existing wardrobe items constituents for lavish affairs creates a way for even the richest in today’s society to participate in the in-vogue methods of acquiring pre-owned clothing.
