Kim Kardashian's Met Gala looks, ranked from least to most iconic

After being turned into a couch meme at her very first Met Gala the year prior (more on that in a second), Kardashian chose to play it super safe for the 2014 theme, "Charles James: Beyond Fashion." 

Kardashian worked with designer Alber Elbaz to create the custom Lanvin gown, which featured a black satin belt and a thigh-high slit. 

The gown was undoubtedly pretty and would've looked great for a movie premiere or awards show, but it was nothing special for a night that encourages celebrities to embrace the theme and push the envelope.

Kardashian's ensemble was actually supposed to look completely different. She revealed that the gown was originally made of "this amazing leather with metallic detailing," and they only decided to redo it in blue satin at the last minute.  

Kardashian still planned to pair her new gown with a chunky belt and leather cuffs, but ditched them before walking the red carpet because she decided they were "a bit too rock 'n' roll," according to E!.

Still a Met Gala novice, it was clear Kardashian didn't want to rock the boat too much on the carpet. But we wish we could've seen the far edgier look she had envisioned for herself in 2014.

Kardashian wore a metallic silver Balmain gown with a thigh-high slit for the "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology" theme in 2016. 

We loved the fabric of the silver dress, and Kardashian took a bit of a risk with her beauty by bleaching her eyebrows, but the look still didn't stand out among a sea of similar metallic looks. 

Kardashian was also overshadowed by her date, then-husband Kanye West. The rapper made headlines that year for daring to wear denim to the Met Gala. 

When looking back on her Met Gala looks in 2019, Kardashian revealed that she had been feeling insecure because she hadn't "lost all of my baby weight" after giving birth to her son Saint in December 2015 — which is likely why she stuck to her usual silhouette.

The "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" Met Gala will likely go down as one of the boldest in the event's history. Stars like Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and Blake Lively delivered stunning looks referencing everything from the Pope to the Sistine Chapel. 

So, Kardashian didn't make waves with her custom gold Versace dress, although the number did nab her a few spots on best-dressed lists. 

Kardashian personally designed the chain-mail gown with Donatella Versace for the event, and we loved the dark eye makeup and high pony that she paired it with.

While the reality TV star hadn't yet mastered how to steal the show at the Met Gala, her style was definitely becoming a little bolder.

At first glance, Kardashian's off-the-shoulder white dress for the "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between" theme might seem even more simple than the gowns we've already discussed. 

But the chic and beachy outfit, which Kardashian paired with sandals and minimal makeup, felt like a statement from the reality TV star. On a night when everyone was going to dial it up and go avant-garde, Kardashian decided to do something completely different. 

"I figured everyone was going to go really over the top, and I just wanted to be really simple," Kardashian — who attended the event without West for the first time — told Vogue on the red carpet, according to Us Weekly. Headlines praised Kardashian's "seriously toned down" look. 

The 2017 Met Gala also occurred just a few months after Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in Paris and $11 million in jewels were stolen from her hotel room. The simple Vivienne Westwood dress felt like a statement from Kardashian, who later discussed the trauma she experienced from the robbery.

The dress — designed by Peter Dundas — was covered with strategically placed crystals and featured a long train of white feathers. Kardashian revealed on Instagram that her inspiration had been Cher's Met Gala outfit from her first time attending the event in 1974.

There was a sea of barely-there dresses that year, with Rihanna kicking off a new trend after wearing her iconic naked dress to the CFDA Fashion Awards in 2014. It was Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez who won praise for their sheer numbers, and Rihanna won the night by upstaging everyone with her custom Guo Pei gown — now one of the most iconic Met Gala looks of all time. 

But Kardashian's gown was bold, stunning, and told a story. It was the first real inkling we'd see of her realizing she could become a force on the Met Gala red carpet.

For the "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" Met Gala, Kardashian arrived in a Schiaparelli gown that was made almost entirely of strands of pearls.

Layers of pearl strands created a halter-style bodice, while more strands sat on her hips and legs atop taupe shapewear.

The ensemble honored the theme with its pearls, as Lagerfeld often gravitated toward them in his designs. But Kardashian also referenced her 2007 Playboy shoot, for which she posed only wearing pearls, with the look, making even more of a statement.

Kris Jenner said her now meme-ified comment, "You're doing amazing, sweetie," to Kardashian during the shoot, as captured on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

Likewise, Kardashian spotlighted her Skims empire with the shapewear element of the dress, again using the Met Gala as a platform for her own success. The company was worth $3.2 billion as of 2022.

"The Kardashians" star shocked fans by arriving at the 2021 "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" Met Gala in a Balenciaga bodysuit and oversized T-shirt dress that covered her from head to toe.

The outfit included a mask that covered her face, so she was only visible in silhouette, with her ponytail and a train flowing behind her as she walked the Met Gala carpet.

It was an instant meme because of its avant-garde nature, but Balenciaga's creative director Demna Gvasalia later explained the outfit was designed to highlight how iconic her body had become in pop culture. 

"People would know instantly it was Kim because of her silhouette. They wouldn't even need to see her face you know?" Gvasalia told Vogue. "And I think that the whole power of her celebrity, that people wouldn't need to see her face to know it's her."

Kardashian's Thierry Mugler gown for the "Camp: Notes on Fashion" Met Gala hugged her figure and was adorned with crystals.

After the gala, Kardashian revealed she went to extreme lengths to wear the skin-tight dress, including taking corset lessons so she could breathe in it.

She also couldn't go to the bathroom in the dress, and in a clip from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," she said she was willing to urinate on herself in the gown if there was an emergency. 

The dress itself was pretty, but it was Kardashian's drastic measures that made the dress so memorable.

Kardashian made her Met Gala debut as Kanye West's date in 2013 when she was expecting their first child, North West. 

The gala's theme was "Punk: Chaos to Couture," and Kardashian wore a long-sleeve, floral Riccardo Tisci dress that had a high neckline and daring slit. Matching shoes completed the look.

Kardashian told Vogue in 2019 that Tisci wanted the floral pattern to symbolize sending a pregnant woman flowers, which she said was "such a sweet message." Tisci also told Kardashian at the time that Anna Wintour wanted her to wear the floral dress, so she did.

But social-media users immediately took to Twitter to criticize the look after Kardashian walked the red carpet, with many comparing the dress to a couch.

"I was crying, like, the whole way home because I just couldn't believe it," Kardashian said in the same interview with Vogue.

But looking back at the dress, Kim has a different perspective. "Now I love it," she told Vogue. "Now it's, like, sick."

Although it wasn't for the reasons she wanted, Kardashian was the talk of the event from her very first Met Gala, which was even more impressive considering she wasn't actually invited.

"I know no one probably wanted me there at the time," Kardashian said in the same Vogue interview. The dress ensured she was on everyone's mind when they thought of the Met Gala, setting the stage for her future looks.

Kardashian made headlines when she arrived at the 2022 "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" Met Gala in the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

The sheer Jean Louis dress was covered in embellishments from head to toe, and Kardashian dyed her hair blond to fully re-create Monroe's look.

"In a sense, it's the original naked dress. That's why it was so shocking," Kardashian told Vogue of the gown.

She borrowed the dress from Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum in Orlando, which it acquired for $4.81 million in 2016, according to a Ripley's press release. Kardashian wore the gown on the red carpet before changing into a replica because it was so fragile. 

Kardashian once again took extreme measures to fit into Monroe's dress. She said she lost 16 pounds in three weeks to wear the dress. 

The conversation around the dress continued for weeks after the Met Gala, as people accused Kardashian of damaging the gown when she wore it.

In June 2022, Ripley's and Kardashian sent Business Insider a joint statement saying she "did not, in any way, damage the garment in the short amount of time it was worn at the Met Gala." 

"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," Amanda Joiner, Ripley's vice president of publishing and licensing who oversaw Kardashian wearing Monroe's dress on the day of the gala, said in the statement. 

Kardashian solidified her status as the Met Gala it-girl with her Marilyn Monroe look, as it really was a once-in-a-lifetime fashion moment.