Omelette dress

The omelette dress[a] is a couture gown designed by Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei and worn by Barbadian singer Rihanna to the Met Gala on May 4, 2015. The gown, which was originally created in 2010, consists of an embroidered canary yellow silk cape and attached train trimmed with fox fur, and weighs approximately 55 pounds (25 kilograms). The gown's appearance at the 2015 Met Gala generated immediate and widespread media coverage.

Background

Guo Pei was born in China in 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.[4] She studied at the Beijing Second Light Industry School and graduated in 1986,[4] later working as a designer at a state-owned garment factory before leaving to establish her own label, Rose Studio, in Beijing in 1997.[4] She built a substantial client base in China's political, celebrity, and social circles over the following two decades, designing costumes for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics among other major commissions.[4]

The gown, officially named the Yellow Queen,[1] was completed in 2010 — five years before it was worn at the Met Gala. The dress, which took 55,000 hours to complete,[4] was constructed from gold thread and fox fur over an embroidered silk base,[5][2] with a train that extends almost eighteen feet (five metres) in length.[6] Guo designed the piece with explicit reference to Chinese imperial symbolism: canary yellow was the colour of the emperor in imperial China,[7] associated with the Qin Dynasty and the concept of the Yellow Emperor.[8][9] The gown weighed 55 pounds (25 kilograms).[6]

2015 Met Gala

The 2015 Met Gala theme was China: Through the Looking Glass, an exhibition co-organised by Andrew Bolton of the Costume Institute and curated in part around the influence of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion. Rihanna, in preparing her look for the event, researched Chinese couture online and discovered the omelette dress.[10] Guo Pei confirmed in a subsequent interview that she "didn't know very much" about Rihanna, and was informed only a week or two before the event that the singer would be wearing her design.[11]

Rihanna arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2015, wearing the omelette dress over a silk bra and panty combination, with an entourage of three attendants required to manage the train on the red carpet and the museum's stairs.[8] On the red carpet, she told Vanity Fair: "I'm so in love with this dress, but the train is insane! I can't really walk in it without any help — but it's so worth it. I love this dress so much!"[5][12] Rihanna later told Dazed that she had felt "like a clown" while wearing the dress, adding that she had almost not attended the event because she felt too overdressed, but ultimately decided to go.[13]

Reception

The gown became a viral internet phenomenon almost immediately after Rihanna's arrival on the red carpet.[10] Social media users likened the circular yellow fur-trimmed train to a fried egg or omelette, and the nickname "omelette dress" (also spelled "omelet dress") became the most widely used popular term for the piece.[10][14] Other users superimposed pizza imagery onto the circular train.[8][15] The viral spread of the gown's imagery brought international attention to Guo Pei for the first time. She was subsequently named among Time magazine's Time 100 in 2016.[16] In 2018, New Zealand filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly released a documentary film about Guo Pei titled Yellow Is Forbidden.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Also referred to as the Yellow Queen or the Yellow Empress.[1][2][3]

References

  1. 1 2 Goh, Daryl. "Rihanna's stunning 'Yellow Queen' dress on exhibit in Singapore". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  2. 1 2 "New Vancouver Art Gallery couture exhibit features this 55-pound gold spun dress worn by Rihanna". CBC. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  3. ↑ Chen, Riddick. "Couturier Guo Pei, famed for Rihanna's Met Gala gown, on why she wears Issey Miyake and why Chinese wedding gowns can take years to make". Tatler Asia. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Safe, Georgina (7 March 2018). "Guo Pei, fashion superstar, puts a fantastical spin on 'Made in China'". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  5. 1 2 Tashjian, Rachel (5 May 2015). "The Story Behind Rihanna's Red Carpet-Winning Met Gala Dress". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Graham, Bre (18 October 2017). "Guo Pei: the Chinese designer who made Rihanna's omelette dress". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  7. ↑ Ferrier, Morwenna (5 May 2015). "How to make Rihanna's Met Ball dress – stylewatch". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 "Rihanna's dress took two years to make but is still the laughing stock of the internet". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  9. ↑ "The woman behind Rihanna's most daring look". CNN. 25 January 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 "Omelette dresses and political statements: the most unforgettable Met Gala looks". The Guardian. 1 May 2026. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  11. ↑ "Chinese Couturier Guo Pei Reveals How Rihanna Ended Up Wearing Her Gown to the Met Gala". Fashionista. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  12. ↑ "The pizza prom dress goes viral". 9News. Retrieved 4 August 2026.
  13. ↑ "Rihanna felt like 'a clown' in her Met Gala omelette dress". Dazed. 30 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  14. ↑ Brown, Annie (4 May 2019). "How the Met Gala became the 'fashion Oscars'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  15. ↑ Hou, Kathleen (4 May 2015). "Rihanna's Met Gala Dress Made Everyone Think of Pizza and Omelettes". The Cut. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
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