Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala Monday was less than pearl-fect.
The Skims mogul made a splash on the red carpet at Vogue’s 2023 ball, clad in a Schiaparelli Haute Couture look comprised of a blush satin corset and over 50,000 freshwater pearls.
But it appeared she couldn’t keep the custom creation in one piece; as Kardashian returned to her hotel after the gala, several of the look’s many pearly strands snapped, sending the gems spilling down onto the New York City streets.
While the reality superstar’s dress appeared intact when she walked the carpet earlier in the night, she told Vogue she’d been struggling with the style all day.
“Some [pearls] popped on the way,” she admitted during the livestreamed arrivals. “I told my daughter [North West] to grab them all. They’re real pearls, and she was putting them all in her purse.”
Kardashian’s ensemble took a dozen artisans over 1,000 hours to create, as each individual pearl strand was strung and draped directly on her body, according to Schiaparelli’s press release.
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Asked about the inspiration behind her luminous look for the Karl Lagerfeld-themed fête — which sparked comparisons to her pearl-bedecked 2007 Playboy cover on social media — the media mogul told Vogue, “What is more Karl? The iconic Chanel pearls is what I always thought of, so we wanted to just be dripping in pearls.”
This isn’t the first time the Met Gala regular has dealt with damage (or accusations of damage, at least) to one of her dresses for fashion’s biggest night.
Last year, Kardashian memorably borrowed Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” gown for the ball; one month later, photos showing missing crystals and signs of rips and tears on the historic garment went viral, with many pointing fingers at its most recent wearer.
But Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, which loaned Kardashian the look, denied it was damaged or altered “in any way” during the Met outing.
“From the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started in,” Ripley’s VP of Publishing and Licensing, Amanda Joiner, said in a statement at the time.
