A Star Is Born: How Kim Kardashian Became the Marilyn Monroe of Our Time

“To love Kim Kardashian is to have a complete lack of pleasure,” wrote all the glossy publications in 2013. True, a year after these statements, Vogue, which had ignored the existence of the Kardashian family for almost 10 years, came out in a Lanvin wedding dress with Kanye West and his bride Kim on the cover. Then the fashion industry split into two camps: some refused to accept the scandalous star, while others watched with interest what would happen next.

In general, Kardashian’s debut, where it all began, was under the tight control of Ricardo Tisci. We’re talking about the same floral dress she wore to her first Met Gala, where she didn’t even get a personal invitation. And even if many turn this outlet into a meme, a head start has been made since then. “Kim Kardashian is the Marilyn Monroe of our generation. You’ll see,” Ricardo said.

Nine years later, Kim took the stairs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in her iconic Marilyn dress and held arms with a young boyfriend. And six months later, she starred in a new Dolce & Gabbana campaign called Ciao Kim in the image of a diva.

So what do Kim Kardashian and Marilyn Monroe have in common? Let’s solve it together.

hard to the stars

Let’s go back to 2007, when a home video appeared on the Web with the participation of Kim, assistant to Paris Hilton. Black PR did its job, and the then-debuting reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians garnered enough views to become one of the most popular American projects. True, or rather minus worked. At that time, the Kardashian sisters were blacklisted for all fashion events. This went on until she met Kanye.

Then began the era of Yeezy’s holistic looks, single Vogue covers, the opening of her own brand Kimono, later known as Skims, cult outings at Mugler, Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier. And then divorce.

Many wondered at the time that Kim owed her career in the fashion industry to Kanye, without exaggeration. Kim answered that question by appearing in the Jean-Louis dress Marilyn Monroe wore to serenade President John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday in 1962. And in September 2022, she put an end to that by closing a joint fashion show with Dolce & Gabbana as part of Milan Fashion Week.

It is noteworthy that Marilyn Monroe, who is not considered a serious actress, has no less thorny path to success. In the movies, she took on the role of a beautiful but stupid blonde who is attracted to purity and simplicity. “I can be clever when it’s necessary, but most guys don’t like that,” she once said, summarizing the stereotype that had formed around her image.

The incomprehensible ideal of beauty

Monroe is considered the epitome of Hollywood glamor: platinum blonde curls, red lipstick and an hourglass figure. And if Marilyn was the archetypal 1950s beauty, then Kim Kardashian is her modern counterpart. As actress Tina Fey ironically said in her autobiography, “Every girl should have white blue eyes, plump Spanish lips, Asian skin with a California tan, Jamaican ass, Michelle Obama’s arms and breasts like a porn actress. And the only person who fits that description best is Kim Kardashian.”

Kim followed Marilyn Monroe in creating a set of new beauty ideals. Whether it’s plastic surgery or losing eight pounds in three weeks to fit into a dress, it’s only possible thanks to FaceTune or more radical interventions.

Lucky in career – unlucky in love

We still don’t want to believe that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s love affair is over. Still, for eight years this couple held the first place on the double goal list. But, unfortunately, the problems in their marriage did not allow them to continue the relationship. For whom this divorce was the third. And her relationship with comedian Pete Davidson, who followed her, ended as quickly as it began.

There were similar dramas in the life of Marilyn Monroe, who had three failed marriages, five famous novels, and then dozens of attempts to have a baby. But, according to the public, the main man in the life of the fatal actress is Marilyn’s performances at Madison Square Garden and the famous “Happy Birthday Mr. Head of State”. In the same dress that Kim Kardashian would wear 60 years later to turn a new page in her biography.