About
Rihanna’s Met Gala Dress refers to an imperial yellow, fur-trimmed cape worn by the American pop singer Rihanna at the Met Gala event in early May 2015. The wardrobe quickly became widely mocked online and spawned a series of photoshopped parodies on Twitter and Instagram, in a similar vein to the dress worn by the pop star at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.
Origin
On May 4th, 2015, Rihanna entered the red carpet at the Met Gala in a long, bright yellow cape by Chinese couture designer Guo Pei (shown below). During the event, Rihanna posted a photograph of herself on the red carpet to her official Instagram[1] feed (shown below).
Spread
That evening, Twitter user @Mr__Harlem[6] posted a tweet comparing Rihanna’s cape to a poured omelette, gaining over 5,300 retweets and 2,800 favorites in the first 24 hours (shown below, left). A minute later, Twitter user @jazzonce[5] posted a tweet comparing the dress to a yellow condom (shown below, right).
On May 5th, the @Dominos_UK[4] Twitter feed posted a picture of the dress photoshopped as a large pepperoni pizza (shown below). Within four hours, the tweet gathered upwards of 2,500 retweets and 1,200 favorites.
That day, The Guardian[7] published a satirical article titled “How to make Rihanna’s Met Ball dress,” containing cooking instructions for making an omelette:
Take four eggs, crack into a mixing bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Beat well with a fork. Meanwhile, put a frying pan on a high heat. Once it’s hot enough, add a small knob of butter. When it has melted, add the eggs and move the pan around to spread the mix out evenly. When the omelette begins to firm up, but is a little raw, sprinkle over the cheese. Place on a red carpet with an arty head piece and basically win the Met Ball. Serves 2-4.
Also on May 5th, other news sites published articles about the photoshop meme, including The Daily What,[2] BuzzFeed,[3]USA Today,[8] NY Daily News,[9] Mashable[10] and The Daily Mail.[11]
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Instagram – @badgalriri
[2]The Daily What – Fashion of the Day
[3]BuzzFeed – Internet Has Reacted Hilarious to Rihannas Met Gala Dress
[4]Twitter – @Dominos_UK
[5]Twitter – @jazzonce_
[6]Twitter – @Mr__Harlem
[7]The Guardian – How to make Rihannas Met Ball dress
[8]USA Today – All the things Rihannas insane dress looked like
[9]NY Daily News – Rihannas Met Gala gown inspires hilarious Internet memes
[10]Mashable – Rihannas Met Gala dress We found memes in a hopeless place
[11]The Daily Mail – Meme Gala!