Pictures: 10 Times Kim Kardashian Proved She’s the Met Gala’s Queen of Bodycon

Photo: Getty

When A-list stars attend the glitzy Met Gala, they typically use their fashion choices to become a character for the night, wearing bold ensembles that are a tad more over-the-top and fabulous than their everyday garb. But for Kim Kardashian, the annual red carpet event has served more as an opportunity to play into her recurring style signatures—namely, her eternal love of bodycon dressing. Over the years, Kardashian has slipped into a number of looks that are all about dramatically enhancing the figure.

Her Givenchy maternity gown in 2013, for the “Punk: Chaos to Couture” theme—her first time attending the Met Gala—is one of the most famous examples. The clingy, floral-printed turtleneck gown (complete with matching gloves) gave birth to countless memes, so much so that Kardashian told Vogue in 2019 that she “cried all the way home” about it. “There were all these memes about me and this couch,” said Kardashian. Even so, one can’t deny it was a major style moment that people still talk about years later.

Since then, Kardashian has continued to favor dresses that accentuate the form. In 2019, for the “camp” theme, Kardashian wore a custom Thierry Mugler look made of silk organza and dripping crystals (it was made to mimic the wet shirtdress that Sophia Loren wears in Boy on a Dolphin). Underneath, a Mr. Pearl corset further whittled the waist. In 2021, for “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” Kardashian went viral once again: This time for the all-black Balenciaga spandex look she wore on the carpet, which covered her from head to toe.

Of course, there’s no Kardashian Met Gala look that was as hotly discussed as last year’s, which honored the history of American fashion. The star slipped into a naked-style Jean-Louis dress, once worn by Marilyn Monroe to sing “Happy Birthday” to then-president JFK in 1962. “Nowadays everyone wears sheer dresses, but back then that was not the case,” says Kardashian of the famous frock. “In a sense, it’s the original naked dress. That’s why it was so shocking.”

For the 2023 Met Gala, Kardashian covered herself in over 50,000 pearls when she wore a couture creation by Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli. The look took artisans over 1,000 hours to create, with pearls dangling directly of Kim’s body—a bold new iteration of the star’s love for body-conscious fashion.