Whether you love or hate celebrity culture, the Met Gala is an event. The less jaded among us can watch the year’s biggest stars take their boldest fashion risks – unlike an awards show, it’s an event that encourages avant-garde extravagance. And if you find the whole thing boring, you can laugh at what Ed Sheeran’s outfit looks like something Troy Bolton wore in High School Musical 3.
But this year the Met Gala was a test.
“Katy Perry. This is it,” one X post said. In the photo, Katy Perry appears to be wearing a huge dress decorated with three-dimensional floral appliqués. As the pearly dress falls to the floor, its long train transforms in realistic looking moss falling over the beige and red Met Gala carpet.
If you look at the picture for more than just a cursory glance, you might well believe that the “Teenage Dream” singer arrived at fashion’s biggest night in this whimsical, forest-like dress. But in all other photos from the Met Gala, the carpet was white and green as part of the “Garden of Time” theme; In this photo it is beige and red. Why does Katy appear to be walking on a different carpet?
That’s the telltale sign that this viral picture of Perry is fake. And yet it already has more than 10 million views on X and over 300,000 likes.
Minutes later, another user on X posted another picture of Perry. Her lips are slightly parted, as if surprised by the paparazzi, and she is wearing a bronze corset that looks like a key to a garden. Unlike the first image, this one actually has the right color palette and scenery for this year’s gala, but something still feels off. Her floral skirt looks like it’s been cut out and glued to her body, and the light hits her corset in an unnatural way.
So how do you know it’s a fake and not a strange photo? No fashion magazines covered Katy Perry’s look tonight – it doesn’t look like she’ll actually be there this year. Meanwhile, Perry cryptically liked both viral tweets but didn’t comment on the misleading posts.
Every year Rihanna is one of the best dressed at the Met Gala. In the days leading up to the event, she promised fans that she would arrive at the event in time for dinner – she usually arrives fashionably very late. She even dyed her hair pink for the occasion.
Earlier at the end of the red carpet, an image emerged of Rihanna wearing a dramatic regal garden-themed gown. The shoulders form a sculptural halo embroidered with birds, vines and flowers. But here too, despite 2.6 million views, the picture is not real. Rihanna dyed her hair pink, remember? Like Perry, Rihanna is nowhere to be seen. People Magazine reported that Rihanna had to skip Monday night’s festivities after coming down with the flu.
The consequences of a fake Rihanna dress are relatively minor. But given how much she nailed the Met Gala theme, would Rihanna really take the easy way out and wear a floral dress to the Garden of Time celebration? Like an AI deepfake Drake song, these synthetic looks were a little too on-the-nose and lacked the creativity that makes the Met Gala unique. Could an AI come up with Cynthia Erivo’s brilliant suit or Lana Del Rey’s creepy-cool forest look?
Zendaya, an early front-runner for Best Dressed, appeared relatively in a teal outfit that makes her look like a super-chic fairytale villain. When a picture of Zendaya in a black leather dress and floral headpiece appeared on the carpet hours later, I was convinced it was another fake photo. But the truth is stranger: After five years away from the gala, Zendaya actually walked the carpet twice in two different outfits. Imagine that.
Still, each new image of a celebrity served as a prompt to check out the patterns on the carpet, the flowers along the banister, and whether or not the paparazzi in the background looked a little funky. Normally, the Met Gala is an opportunity to chat about famous people’s outlandish outfits, providing a brief distraction from our lackluster Monday nights. But in the age of widespread generative AI tools, celebrity culture is a constant reminder that we can’t believe everything we see online.