Fans question safety of Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala gown

Kim Kardashian made her long-awaited arrival at the 2024 Met Gala, but her outfit has sparked some confusion and concern among fans.

The Skims founder, 43, walked the Met Gala red carpet outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Monday 6 May. For the annual event, which coincided with the Costume Institute’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibit, Kardashian wore a silver John Galliano corset-style dress that cinched her waist.

The silver gown was embellished with leaves and featured a metal skirt with a lace train. She paired the ensemble with a simple grey shawl, while her blonde hair was styled in long beachy waves.

Kardashian’s dramatic corset drew much attention from people online, who wondered how the reality TV star was able to fit her waist into the constricting dress. On X (formerly Twitter) one fan shared a clip from Vogue’s red carpet livestream of the event, which they claimed showed Kardashian struggling to breathe.

“I can’t wait for someone interview Kim so I can watch her try to take enough air into her diaphragm to say a sentence #MetGala,” they captioned the post.

Meanwhile, several viewers shared their equally shocked reactions to Kardashian’s Met Gala transformation.

“How is Kim Kardashian breathing?” one user asked on X. “Her waist looks so small in that omg.”

“Kim Kardashian’s waist is absurd. Like, not to be a hater but it actually is concerning especially when ppl [sic] aspire to be like her. Sorry,” wrote someone else.

“Kim Kardashian looks like she can’t breathe. That corset looks so uncomfortable but she looks good,” another fan said, while one critic commented: “Don’t like Kim Kardashian and don’t care about her but that corset thing is??? That must hurt like hell??”

While posing for photos outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the mother of four appeared to struggle walking up the steps as a result of the corset, and received help from other individuals at the event.

This isn’t the first time Kardashian has transformed for the Met Gala. For the 2022 event, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum wore a sheer floor-length Bob Mackie gown previously worn by Marilyn Monroe. The iconic Hollywood actor wore the dress in 1962, when she famously serenaded President John F Kennedy at his 45th birthday party.

At the time, Kardashian told red carpet co-host La La Anthony that she lost 16 pounds to fit into the dress. “So I looked at them and I said: ‘Give me, like, three weeks,’” the billionaire mogul said, as she recalled how the gown initially didn’t fit. “It was such a challenge, it was like a roll. I was determined, I was determined to fit.”

While Kardashian wore the original dress while posing on the Met Gala steps, she later changed into a replica of the gown, as she told Vogue that she “would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it”.

However, Kardashian’s dramatic two-week weight loss was widely criticised on social media and even sparked backlash from celebrities like Jameela Jamil and Lili Reinhart. In response to the criticism, Kardashian defended her weight loss by comparing it to one an actor might do before a movie role.

“To me it was like: ‘Okay, Christian Bale can do it for a movie role and that is acceptable.’ Even Renée Zellweger gained weight for a role,” she told the New York Times. “It’s all the same to me. I wasn’t saying: ‘Hey everyone, why don’t you go lose this weight in a short period of time?’”

The theme for the 2024 Met Gala was “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” – coinciding with the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibit. The exhibit is centred around 50 historically significant pieces of fashion, some of which are too fragile ever to be worn again.

Along with the theme, guests were encouraged to follow the Met Gala’s dress code, loosely labelled “The Garden of Time”. The dress code takes inspiration from a short story of the same title, written by JG Ballard in 1962, which focuses on the theme of fleeting beauty.

In addition to the SKKN by Kim founder, her sisters Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner attended the 2024 Met Gala, as well as her mother Kris Jenner. Follow for live updates from the Met Gala here.

The Independent has contacted representatives for Kim Kardashian for comment.