A$AP Rocky and Rihanna attend The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" exhibition in New York on Sept. 13, 2021. Photo / AP
A$AP Rocky and Rihanna attend The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" exhibition in New York on Sept. 13, 2021. Photo / AP
There has been a glaring omission from this year’s Met Gala red carpet and fans have flooded social media with questions about the stylish superstar’s absence. Now, it has been revealed why Rihanna never showed up at the biggest fashion event of the year.
Today, Rihanna was ano-show on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - but why would the Met Gala regular miss the first Monday of May celebration?
Well, it seems even the biggest stars can come down with a cold.
According to People magazine, Rihanna had to cancel attending the Met Gala this year as she is sick with the flu.
The Umbrella singer, 36, and her rapper partner A$AP Rocky, 35, have become renowned for their show-stealing Met Gala ensembles - and fashionably late arrivals. Being tardy to the party has been a Met Gala tradition for the couple since their appearance at the 2021 event when they arrived at 10 pm.
However this year, fans shouldn’t wait with bated breath, as it has been confirmed they won’t be attending the event at all.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky at the Met Gala. Photo / Getty Images
Fans were excited to see what Rihanna and her beau had in store for their interpretation of the theme: “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”. The Diamonds songstress even teased to Extra that her outfit this year would be “real simple.”
While we may never know what the singer had in mind for this year’s ensemble, fans look back at her catalogue of jaw-dropping looks to get a hint of what could have been.
In 2015, Rihanna wore a stunning canary yellow Guo Pei dress - now on display at Auckland Art Gallery - as an interpretation of the theme, “China: Through the Looking Glass.” The fur-trimmed cape, which flooded the Met steps behind her, remains one of her most iconic looks to date.
Speaking of the fashion moment, Pei confessed that she didn’t think Rihanna would choose to wear the creation. “I actually didn’t think the dress was the right one for her,” she told Women’s Wear Daily. “I thought it would be too heavy and too hot, but she was so touched the moment she put it on.”
Rihanna wearing the Yellow Queen Gown by Guo Pei at the 2015 Met Gala opening for China: Through The Looking Glass. Photo / Mike Coppola, Getty Images.
In 2018, the singer was co-chair of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” and made a grand entrance in a bejeweled bishop’s headdress, minidress and robe. The outfit was Maison Margiela Artisanal creation designed by John Galliano.
The Met Gala, which was founded in 1946, is a celebration of fashion, art, and culture, and has some of the biggest global stars descend on the carpet in all their glamour.
The Met Gala is run by Vogue, the major international fashion magazine, and, despite its extensive red-carpet coverage, is a private event with a strict no phone and no social media policy inside.
