Why Rihanna missed the 2024 Met Gala

The queen and king of the Met Gala unfortunately couldn’t make it to last night's star-studded event.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are known for making a splashy entrance each year on fashion’s biggest night, but this year were notably absent from the red carpet.

Although Rihanna recently teased her look for this year’s Met Gala, a source for People confirmed the superstar had to cancel at the last minute after contracting the flu. She previously told Extra that her look was going to be "very simple" with an emphasis on her glam. "I think it's gonna come down to what my make-up and what my hair is going to do," she said. "We want to play with that." The singer was pictured in Miami over the weekend sporting candyfloss pink hair, prompting speculation that the vibrant hue would have formed a central part of her Met Gala look.

Since going public with their relationship, Rihanna and Rocky have earned a reputation as one of the best-dressed couples at the Met Gala. Last year, the two embraced the Karl Lagerfeld–dedicated dress code, with Rihanna wearing a dramatic white Maison Valentino gown with a coordinating rosette-covered top. Meanwhile, Rocky referenced one of the late Lagerfeld’s own looks in a high-low red plaid pleated kilt layered over a pair of bedazzled baggy jeans.

This year’s dress code was 'The Garden of Time,' a concept inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name. In essence, the theme examines the intrinsic connection between time and natural beauty — leaving the door wide open for attendees to interpret the dress code as they please.

'The Garden of Time' also complements the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,' which will include about “250 objects spanning four centuries” from the institute’s vast collection, all of them “visually united by iconography related to nature, which will serve as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion,” according to a press release. The exhibition will feature a number of modern technologies in its display, too, “from cutting-edge tools, artificial intelligence, and computer-generated imagery to traditional formats of x-rays, video animation, light projection, and soundscapes.”

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