As the 2025 Met Gala, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” inches closer, there’s one question on everyone’s mind: Will Rihanna attend?
It’s a valid question! While Rih hasn’t attended since “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” in 2023, her partner—and recent coverstar—A$AP Rocky will serve as one of this year’s co-chairs alongside Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour.
While we can’t say with certainty that she’ll be there, we can reiterate one universal truth: Rihanna certainly knows how to make an entrance at the Met Gala. It’s an art she’s perfected over her 10 appearances. Her very first Met was at 2007’s “Poiret: King of Fashion,” where she wore a white Georges Chakra dress with silver embellishments, black mesh gloves, and a red rose as an accessory. From there, an impressive streak of viral outfits followed.
In 2015, for “China: Through the Looking Glass,” Rihanna shut down the red carpet when she swanned in wearing a canary yellow cape of epic proportions. The couture piece by Guo Pei took two years to make (and twice as many men to carry), and would go down as one of the most memorable looks to ever make its way up the museum’s grand staircase.
It wouldn’t be the first time—or the last—that Rihanna delivered a pitch-perfect homage to the evening’s honoree. In 2017, when the exhibit highlighted Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, Rihanna managed to make an architectural CDG confection covered in floral fabrics layered and pulled apart like petals look like it belonged in the museum itself.
And, lest we forget, Rihanna has also done a turn cohosting the Met Gala. In 2018, she served as co-chair alongside Donna Karan and Amal Clooney for the “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” costume exhibit. She sent the internet into a tizzy in a custom Papal creation by John Galliano, complete with a mitre hat. (Her fans dubbed her “Pope Rihanna.”) Surely she can give Rocky some tips.
After shutting down the carpet in 2022 and 2023, we can only imagine what Rihanna has in store for the 2025 Met Gala. In the meantime, take a look back at some of her most memorable red carpet looks.
2023: “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”
This camellia-adorned number by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino paid homage to the Chanel brides that Karl Lagerfeld peppered throughout his collections. While Rihanna sat out the 2022 Met Gala due to her pregnancy, but bared her baby bump on the 2023 carpet.
2021: “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”
While her Balenciaga overcoat and Stephen Jones Millinery hat were a departure from her colourful looks of the past, Rihanna still brought the glamour with a whopping 267 carats of Bvlgari jewellery.
2018: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”
Rihanna’s papal moment has proven both an instantly iconic Met look, but an instantly iconic look period. (It’s only fitting for a co-chair!) The rhinestone-encrusted minidress with a matching coat and hat was made by none other than John Galliano for Maison Margiela.
2017: “Rei Kawakubo: Art Of The In-Between”
In a piece fresh off the Comme des Garçons Fall 2016 runway, Rih proved that florals don’t need to be boring.
2015: “China: Through the Looking Glass”
“I will never forget that feeling of discovering that designer,” Rih told Vogue of Guo Pei, who designed her awe-inspiring yellow coat-dress. Although Pei was a prominent designer in China, a boost from Rihanna helped put her on the map in the United States.
2009: “The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion”
Where others zig, Rihanna will always zag. For the 2009 Met, she leaned into menswear, donning a black Dolce & Gabbana suit complete with puffed sleeves, black driving gloves, and cropped cigarette pants. Always ahead of the game, Rih’s suiting is perfect for the 2025 Met dress code, “tailored for you.”
2007: “Poiret: King of Fashion”
At her first-ever Met Gala, Rihanna wore a white empire-waist Georges Chakra dress complete with rhinestone embellishments. Always one to accessorise to the nines, she wore a pair of black fishnet gloves—with a heap of diamond jewellery to boot.
This story first appeared in Vogue.com.
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