From plus-one to mainstay, Kim Kardashian holds a unique position in Met Gala history. The Met Gala is not typically an event that welcomes many reality TV stars, even breakouts of the genre who have embedded themselves within the fashion elite. Which is why it made so many headlines when Kim Kardashian first walked the Met Gala steps back in 2013. She was attending as then-partner Kanye West’s plus one—and her now-infamous rose-patterned Givenchy maternity gown only fueled online criticism around her attendance.
Kardashian believes the other guests at the event that night were just as skeptical. “I didn’t know anyone, and I’m sure no one wanted me there lol,” Kardashian wrote of her expirience six years later, admitting she “went home and cried” out of insecurity. And yet, she’s never missed a Met Gala since, slowly upping the ante with increasingly controversial looks as the years wore on.
Spectacle seems to be the name of the game for Kardashian, whose very presence on the Met steps is impossible to miss—even when she hid her face in head-to-toe Balenciaga back in 2021. Of course, no look sparked as much outrage (on multiple levels) as her decision to borrow one of Marilyn Monroe’s most iconic dresses to honor the “Gilded Glamour” dress code the very next year.
So while Kim Kardashian has never co-chaired the prestigious event, her name feels intrinsically linked to the cultural conversation surrounding fashion’s biggest night. As we await the Met Gala 2026, let’s revisit each of Kardashian’s looks from the past 12 years.
