What's Behind The Red Carpet Looks: Kim Kardashian Met Gala Moment And More

Kim Kardashian's Marilyn Monroe Met Gala moment is still the talk of the town. In a new development, the shape wear mogul explained that losing about 16 pounds in three weeks in order to fit into Marilyn Monroe's “Happy Birthday, Mr President” dress at the 2022 Met Gala contributed to a "really painful" psoriasis flare-up.

Kardashian, who prefers a plant-based diet, went back to eating meat during the lead-up to the Met Gala to conform to her “strict” carb-free and sugar-free diet. “Psoriasis broke out over my body and I got psoriatic arthritis so I couldn’t really move my hands,” she told Allure. “It was really painful, and I had to go to a rheumatologist who put me on a steroid. I was freaking out. I cut out the meat again, and it’s calmed down.”

After her controversial appearance at the fashion event back in May, the 41-year-old sparked backlash not just for 'potentially damaging' the historic dress, but for encouraging crash dieting in order to make the garment fit.

And when it came to the latter, perhaps she should have listened to the public's outcry over the weight-loss strategy considering it left her with a health scare.

On the red carpet, Kim detailed the measures that she took for her weight loss journey after severely restricting her diet for almost a month. Her comments were branded “irresponsible” and “triggering” at the time, for she was accused of “promoting extremely disordered eating.” Many people took to social media to call her out — first of all for losing that much weight so quickly, but also for sharing the information on how she did it, which could be dangerous for impressionable fans.

However, Kim defended her 'diet' for the event, explaining that she never "starved" herself and worked closely with a nutritionist.

“If I was starving and doing it really unhealthy, I would say that, of course, that’s not a good message," Kardashian responded to the criticism. "But I had a nutritionist, I had a trainer. I have never drunk more water in my life. I don’t see the criticism for other people when they lost weight for roles — they are geniuses for their craft. There are so many things out there that are so not accurate and not true.”

Notwithstanding her statement, Kim is a style and beauty icon in ways and has the means and resources to recreate herself every few years, and we don’t fault her for that — but could she acknowledge that not everyone can achieve the beauty trends that she’s putting out there for the whole world to imitate?

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Outside of fashion editorials and runways, one of the best forms of publicity for a designer is having a celebrity wear their look on the red carpet. The mutual pay-off is that stars are also given the opportunity to flex their style knowledge, earning further respect from fans and fashion aficionados alike. In some cases, the uncomfortable, racy looks cause controversy, which further leads to celebs dissing it out in the future.

At the 69th Cannes Film Festival, Bella Hadid wore an Alexandre Vauthier red dress with a hip-high slit. She revealed to ">Vogue in 2021, “I was very nervous in this dress. I look very sexual.” She continued, “I'm still embarrassed even though the dress is gorgeous. It just, again, doesn’t feel so much like me and I think this was the start of the Bella persona that everyone sees in me.”

In June, Eva Longoria discussed red carpet culture and what goes behind creating the 'perfect looks' She joked that there’s a village of people creating this illusion of not being tired. She admitted that stars often go to great lengths to stay in shape for their memorable looks, however, one needs to understand it's a lifestyle choice they choose for themselves and shouldn't be followed blindly.

“I don’t follow any fads or diets, but I know what my body reacts to. People look at celebrities for, you know, ‘what is she doing that I could be doing?’ but you got to do what you need to do. I don’t think you can do the same thing a celebrity does and have the same results,” Longoria explained.

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Let's not stop at calling out toxic behaviour when it comes to health and how we talk about bodies — but we also need to learn to listen to our own bodies and base our diets on our individual choices.