How Rihanna Stole The Met Gala Without Even Being There

Fans and fashion experts alike look forward to Rihanna's fashion-forward looks at the Met Gala. In 2015, she arrived in an instantly iconic yellow dress from designer Guo Pei. It was a difficult piece to pull off, as the dress weighed a reported 55 pounds. The designer believed the "What's My Name?" singer was one of the few people who could have looked so elegant in such a complicated piece. "Even when the dress was on my runway, it was not as perfect as how Rihanna interpreted it," Pei told Elle in 2015. While showing up fashionably late in September 2021 — as the last celebrity to arrive at the gala's red carpet — Rihanna once again stole the show. That time, she sported a black Balenciaga overcoat by Demna Gvasalia. "Its black ruffles and voluminous scale were a chic interpretation of all-American style," Vogue wrote at the time.

Even being pregnant could not slow Rihanna down from experimenting with fashion. "I thought to myself, 'There's no way I'm going to go shopping in no maternity aisle,'" she told Vogue for the cover story of their May 2022 issue. "I'm not going to let that part disappear because my body is changing," the Fenty Beauty owner added.

Unfortunately, Rihanna was unable to fly to the 2022 Met Gala due to her pregnancy being so far along, per Elle. That still did not stop her from once again making a show-stealing impression. 

To commemorate Rihanna gracing the cover of their May 2022 issue, Vogue posted an Instagram video (seen above) that featured a statue of the singer. The clip took place inside the Greco-Roman galleries section of The Met museum and had a computer-generated image which showed a marble version of pregnant Rihanna. She posed holding her baby bump in a look that emulated the cover of the magazine. "There's beauty in truth," a voiceover could be heard saying in the short video that started with shots of other statues within the gallery, and culminated with a wide shot of the singer's statue. The Bajan artist re-posted the video to her own Instagram. "[S]hut down the met in marble! what's more gilded than that?" she wrote in the caption.

Once the video started to make the rounds, fans began to reorder their ranking of best looks at the 2022 Met Gala, as many believed that Rihanna deserved the crown for the audacious baby bump sculpture. "Normal people get themselves the dresses, Riri has her own baby bump statue," one fan tweeted. "Rihanna not even at the met and still ate everyone up with that statue," another wrote. "Rihanna is now officially the queen of Met Gala," a Twitter user commented. While another believed that the "Diamonds" singer had transcended the Gala altogether. "[R]ihanna's statue is more iconic than the whole event," they tweeted.

Pregnant, present or not, it appears nothing was stopping Rihanna from distinguishing herself as the queen of the Met Gala.