Whether you love celebrity culture or not, the Met Gala is an event. The less jaded among us get to see all the big stars take the boldest fashion risks of the year. Unlike awards ceremonies, this is an event that promotes avant-garde extravagance. And if you think it all seems pointless, you can laugh at how Ed Sheeran's outfit looks. What Troy Bolton wore in High School Musical 3.
But this year's Met Gala was a test.
“Katy Perry. That’s it,” one X post read. In the photo, Katy Perry is wearing a huge dress decorated with three-dimensional floral appliques. As the pearlescent gown draped to the ground, the long train turned into realistic moss and cascaded over the beige and red Met Gala carpet.
If you look longer than a quick glance at the image, you'll believe the “Teenage Dream” singer arrived at fashion's biggest night wearing this whimsical, woodsy gown. However, in all other photos from the Met Gala, the carpet was white and green as part of the “Garden of Time” theme. In this picture they are beige and red. Why does it look like Katy is walking on a different carpet?
This is a clear sign that Perry's viral image is fake. Despite this, X already has over 10 million views and over 300,000 likes.
A few minutes later, another user on X posted another image of Perry. She has her lips slightly parted, as if surprised by the paparazzi, and is wearing a bronze corset shaped like a garden key. Unlike the first image, this one actually has the right color palette and scenery for this year's gala, but something still feels off. The floral skirt looks as if it has been cut and glued to the body, and the light hits the corset in an unnatural way.
So how do you know if it's a fake and not a weird photo? No fashion magazine has ever reported on Katy Perry's appearance tonight. She doesn't think she will actually attend this year. Meanwhile, Perry did not comment on her fraudulent post, although she liked both viral tweets.
Every year at the Met Gala, Rihanna is one of the best dressed. A few days before the event, she promised her fans that she would actually arrive at the event in time for dinner. Usually she arrives very late. She even dyed her hair pink for the event.
At the beginning of the red carpet, images of Rihanna in a dramatic, regal, garden-themed dress came to mind. Her shoulders bulge with a sculptural halo embroidered with birds, vines, and flowers. But even though she got 2.6 million views, the image isn't real. Rihanna dyed her hair pink, remember? Like Perry, Rihanna doesn't go unnoticed. People Magazine reported that Rihanna had to skip Monday night's festivities after she came down with the flu.
The consequences of a fake Rihanna dress are very minimal. But with Rihanna's track record of perfecting Met Gala themes, would she really take the easy route and wear a floral gown to the “Garden of Time” celebration? Like an AI deepfake Drake song, these synthetic looks were too much and lacked the creativity that makes the Met Gala unique. Could AI come up with Cynthia Erivo's flashy suits or Lana Del Rey's creepy, cool forest looks?
Zendaya, who was the early best dressed leader, appeared in a relatively chic turquoise outfit like a fairy tale villain. Hours later, when an image of Zendaya in a black leather dress and floral headdress appeared on the carpet, I was emboldened to believe it was another fake photo. But the truth is stranger. After five years of missing the gala, Zendaya actually walked the carpet twice, wearing two different outfits. Move the picture.
Nonetheless, the celebrity's new image served as a cue to see if the patterns on the carpet, the flowers along the staircase railings, and the paparazzi in the background looked a little funky. Typically, the Met Gala is an opportunity to talk about celebrities' unusual outfits to provide some respite from an otherwise ordinary Monday night. But in an age where generative AI tools are widespread, celebrity culture is a constant reminder that we can’t trust everything we see online.