Kim Kardashian once again showed just how powerful she is by turning up at the Met Gala in New York in the $5 million dress Marilyn Monroe wore in one of pop culture’s most iconic moments.

Monroe famously wore the nude-coloured figure-hugging gown to sing a sultry version of Happy Birthday to President John F Kennedy in front of thousands at Madison Square Garden in 1962.

By tracking her whereabouts from paparazzi photos and scanning recent interviews, social media users guessed Kim was going to wear the dress, after she and new partner Pete Davidson were recently spotted in Orlando, Florida – the home of Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum.

In 2016, the dress, which contains more than 2,500 handstitched crystals, was sold at auction to Ripley’s for nearly $5 million (£3.99m).

Read more: The good, the bad and the ugly from the Met Gala red carpet

It was first sold at auction in 1999 for over a million dollars as part of a sale of Monroe’s estate with Christie’s.

It then sold for $4.8 million at Julien’s Auctions in 2016, and was later acquired by Ripley’s.

To this day, it holds the record for being the most expensive dress sold at auction. It is the first time it has been worn in public since the day Monroe sang in it.

Kardashian was the final celebrity to walk the Met Gala red carpet, joined by Davidson. She swapped her signature long black hair for a tight platinum blonde bun, emulating Monroe.

The reality TV star and entrepreneur told Vogue she had to lose 16 pounds to fit into the dress and said she would be “forever grateful” for the moment.

All of Kardashian’s sisters attended the gala, as did her mother and manager Kris Jenner.

The annual event, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was held on Monday evening.

Kim and Davidson made their first red carpet outing together last week at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC.