Pregnant Rihanna Appears at the Met Gala 2022 — But Not How You’d Expect
Rihanna, despite mass speculation, did actually make an appearance at the 2022 Met Gala. However, like the singer is wont to do, it’s not in a way anyone anticipated.
In a new video published on Vogue‘s Instagram page, the fashion muse is spotted as a rendering of the marble statue of “Eirene (The Personification of Peace),” a top attraction in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Greco-Roman galleries. For the occasion, a digital rendering of a pregnant Rihanna wearing a lacy Alaïa bodysuit, “straight off this month’s Vogue cover” (per caption) is in Eirene’s place, commanding center stage in this wing of the Met. The 3D version of the singer mimics the same pose and outfit worn on her “Vogue” May 2022 cover — with the exception of her red stiletto heels.
Though she wasn’t physically present for the 2022 Met Gala, Rihanna has still been making headlines for her unabashedly glamorous approach to maternity style since announcing her pregnancy earlier this January.
The Met’s “In America”-themed occasion also saw a slew of celebrities filmed in constructed backdrops or edited within wings of the Met. All were related to or made to mimic works of art owned by the museum itself; Gwen Stefani and Bad Bunny were cast in frescos, Rosalia and Quannah Chasinghorse were depicted in paintings and Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s romantic kiss was depicted in 1700s Sèvres porcelains.
Others were purely whimsical and playful. Sydney Sweeney pored over a museum map while seemingly trapped in a miniature gallery. Tom Ford walked up to a metallic Jeff Koons sculpture of himself. A shrunken Jon Batiste played the trumpet while surrounded by musical instruments in the “Art of Music Through Time” Gallery. One of the most whimsical, however, found Cardi B dancing and shimmying in front of the Museum’s iconic Temple of Dendur.
The 2022 Met Gala’s theme is “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” exploring the foundations of American fashion — specifically, identifiers of American style and individual designers. The exhibit will include 100 garments by independent designers and dressmakers from the 1800s to the mid-late 1900s in the Museum’s American Wing period rooms. There will also be “freeze frames” of film vignettes in each room, highlighting the aesthetics of eight different film directors: Janicza Bravo, Sofia Coppola, Julie Dash, Tom Ford, Regina King, Martin Scorsese, Autumn de Wilde and Chloé Zhao. Supported by Instagram and Condé Nast, the event raises funding for The Costume Institute’s exhibitions and future improvements. The exhibit will be open to the public starting on May 7, and — along with Part 1, which opened last September — close on Sept. 5, 2022.
Discover the Met Gala 2022 live arrivals in the gallery.