Katy Perry’s Met Gala look this year sparked a wave of backlash, with many fashion followers baffled by her decision to hit the red carpet wearing an unusual face covering.
Plenty has already been written trying to capture the Roar singer’s futuristic, machine-like styling: a reflective metal mask paired with a mesh hood, matched with a white satin gown said to be made using leftover fabrics.
Any smaller touches in the outfit were easily eclipsed by the headpiece. But the look also featured six-fingered gloves and a metallic grill across her teeth—details that helped round out an apparent nod to AI deepfakes of Perry that circulated after her previous Met Gala appearance.
To some, the ensemble felt less like high fashion and more like something you’d wear to a wedding on a space station. Even so, most celebrities aren’t likely to say that sort of thing directly to a pop star—though Christina Ricci proved to be an exception.
The Yellowjackets star and Addams Family alum is known for speaking her mind, and her reaction to Perry’s outfit was as blunt as it gets.
“Yikes,” Ricci commented simply below a Variety Instagram post of Perry’s outfit.
Ricci may have been one of the few famous faces to weigh in so directly, but online commentary was far more relentless, with the mask in particular setting off heated reactions on Reddit.
“At least Katy knows no one wants to see her face,” one hater said, in a top-rated comment. “She’s ready for some fencing I see,” another said. A more kind Reddit user added: “The gloves and fucked up hair is funny, no matter the actual theme, i feel like its always still a little CAMP when Miss Katy shows up.”
As Perry’s appearance became one of the night’s most talked-about moments, her representatives issued an explanation for the headpiece—though it didn’t exactly make the concept feel any less abstract.
Apparently, the mask is ‘designed to be a literal and symbolic reflection that invites the observer to consider that their perception of others can mirror their own internal world, and conversely mask truth.’
Elsewhere, some on social media argued the styling made more sense when viewed as a full statement about the growing use of AI to spread misleading imagery and information.
“Her face being covered means these pictures can’t be used to train models to make other deepfakes of her,” one person explained. “The gloves having more fingers is reflecting how bad ai is (or was, ugh) at rendering hands. The burnt train might be a nod to the climate impact of data centres.”
Either way, Perry doesn’t appear particularly bothered by people missing the point. On the carpet, she even produced a tarot card—The Magician—with the words ‘commitment to the bit’ written on it.