If at the MET Gala 2023 there were two names that stood out above the rest in terms of women, it was Dua Lipa and Rihanna. The British soloist focused the world’s attention thanks to her outfit valued at more than 10 million dollars. And the Barbados singer reappeared publicly to show off her pregnancy and conquer the cameras once again.
One PR outside Dua Lipa’s freaky fête at Virgo, a Lower East Side club, claimed there were “11 parties” on the night of the Met Gala. However, in reality, there were 10 official after-parties in classic New York City after-party locations or simply uptown, with the majority being attended by the most well-known celebrities.
But Dua Lipa, as a Met Gala co-chair, decided to go for a different approach by inviting the most high-profile guests to Virgo’s underground basement club, filled with smoke machines and Dom Perignon. The Virgo location, next to a for-lease building and guarded by a crew of kids and fans, added to the excitement of the bizarre juxtaposition of celebrity and everyday life that is a Met after-party.
Despite only seeing one early arrival, Billie Eilish, wearing a zip-up jacket from Lu’u Dan and a backward baseball cap, the waiting crowd was later rewarded with the arrival of Met Gala attendees.
A Night Full of Celebrities and Fashion at the Lower East Side Club
Dua Lipa’s Met Gala after-party at Virgo was the place to be for A-list celebrities. Despite the wait, attendees were not disappointed. Dua Lipa arrived in an old-school Chanel look composed of a bra top and a pair of knit shorts, along with layers of Chanel necklaces. Throughout the night, more famous faces arrived, including Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola Peltz-Beckham, model Cara Delevingne, actors Margot Robbie and Vanessa Hudgens, Emma Chamberlain, Trevor Noah, and Penelope Cruz.
The party also had its fair share of fashion designers, including Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Simon Porte Jacquemus. Willie Norris, wearing a long, tailored black insulated coat that she made herself under Willie Norris for Outlier, said, “I like any excuse to look very, very good.” Succession’s Annabelle Dexter-Jones was also there, wearing her mother’s strapless black 1993 Karl Lagerfeld-era Chloé dress. She said, “It feels kind of weird, like it’s going to get weird! I feel like you can do things here without anyone seeing or watching or filming it. It’s dark, in a good way.”
Towards the end of the night, two long-awaited special guests arrived: A$AP Rocky and Rihanna, who wore a custom white Chrome Hearts look that included an itty-bitty bump-revealing jacket and a long skirt with a buttoned-slit that went up to the top of the thigh. It was a glittering treat to the Lower East Side, courtesy of Ms. Lipa.
We could see Rihanna and Dua Lipa sharing a private room in an after-party full of famous faces (Billie Eilish was also seen there). Their photograph together exudes glamour on all four sides and even in the middle of the night ecstasy they were able to pose together complementing their dresses with the theme of the night: the black and white of the fashion designs of the late Karl Lagerfeld.
In rigorous Chanel, firm for which the famous designer worked for years, both international stars showed that there is good harmony between them. Something that did not take long to reach the comments and interactions of the image that dreamed of something more than a photograph: “What if…?”.
Taking into account that both are in the process of composing and recording their new studio albums (Rihanna’s album has been out for a few years now), it can’t be ruled out that from this contact and this photograph together something else could come out that will shake the musical universe in 2023, 2024 or whenever they plan to launch their new projects.
An image of many carats (and we do not refer only to all the beads, jewelry, necklaces, bracelets, rings, pendants, earrings, custom glasses with rhinestones … that they wore) that has united two of the great divas of music whose paths have converged at the MET Gala 2023 and that could surprise us in the future.