How Kim Kardashian’s 2019 Met Gala corset whittled her waist

When Kim Kardashian hit the red carpet at the 2019 Met Gala clad in a “dripping wet” Thierry Mugler dress that made her waist appear impossibly tiny, onlookers were left with one major question: What’s going on with her body?

While some speculated that the reality star, 38, had had ribs removed to squeeze into the look, Kardashian’s trainer said her otherworldly figure was mostly thanks to good old-fashioned exercise. “To make things clear,” Melissa Alcantara wrote in an Instagram story, “1. This dress is corseted BUT 2. Kim trains her ass off 6 days a f–king week, she wakes up early AF and is dedicated.”

But as a new Vogue video reveals, Kardashian’s wasn’t any ordinary corset. Created by the legendary Mr. Pearl — who frequently collaborates with Mugler as well as wasp-waisted burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese — the star’s undergarment was so tightly laced, she had to remain upright throughout the night.

“Okay so Anna, if I don’t sit down for dinner, now you know why,” Kardashian said in the clip. “I’ll be walking around mingling, talking, but I cannot hardly sit. I can only half-sit.”

The mobile mogul’s dress was topped with a tan layer of silicone to lend a wet look, and was dripping with tiny jewels from top to bottom. The look took eight months to complete, and Kardashian said she and husband Kanye West immediately thought of Manfred Thierry Mugler as soon as the gala’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion” theme was announced back in October.

“He is, like, the king of camp,” she explained. “He invented camp.” It seems the feeling was mutual, as Mugler came out of retirement to design his first look in 20 years for Kardashian.

“When Kim first contacted him, definitely he understood that she was the next one,” the designer’s manager Jean Baptiste revealed. “The next Venus of beauty.”

While the KKW Beauty founder stole the show on the red carpet, West purposely picked a low-key outfit — black Dickies pants and a matching jacket — that wouldn’t attract attention. “This year, I’m just your plus-one. You’re the cover girl and I’m your plus-one,” West told her. “So I’ll just try to fade out into the background and just be your date and let you shine.”

In addition to squeezing into her teeny-tiny corset, Kardashian said she prepped for the red carpet by getting three facials, a spray tan, a Korean body scrub and more. “Literally every single day, whatever beauty treatment you can think of, I got,” she said.

It clearly paid off.