Met Gala 2017 highlights: Rihanna sticks to theme, Kendall Jenner stuns with racy gown choice

The annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit, or the Met Gala 2017, as it is popularly called, kicked off Monday night in New York with some of the best-dressed A-listers. Here are some of the highlights of the event.

One of the highlights was new couple Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez. The duo, who started dating sometime ago, attended hand-in-hand. For Gala night, Lopez chose to wear a flowing light blue gown, while Rodriguez wore black. However, all heads turned to Rihanna when she made her entry, wearing a bright, multi-coloured patterned dress, keeping in mind Monday night’s Met Gala theme: “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art Of The In-Between.”

"I love it. It feels f------ awesome!" Rihanna told Vanity Fair on the red carpet. RiRi has a habit of wearing something outstanding each year at the Met Gala. In 2015, the singer turned heads by donning imperial yellow Guo Pei gown for the “China: Through The Looking Glass” theme. Another celebrity who stunned everybody with her choice of clothes was none other than reality star and model Kendall Jenner, who had a transparent La Perla Haute Couture Collection crystal draped gown with a visible thong.

Jenner's gown has a bit of history. The outfit, which showed off the model's perfect backside, was made out of 85,000 hand-painted crystals. The designers spent over 160 hours creating the masterpiece, which Jenner chose to wear at Anna Wintour's annual event.

“I was inspired by Rei Kawakubo’s concept of ‘un-fabric’ and her ability to create movement out of seemingly immobile materials. So, I created my own ‘un-fabric’ by affixing stones to a single thread, creating a beautiful and liquid suspension that mirrored the qualities of a fine silk," Julia Haart, La Perla's creative director, said in a statement.

Jenner's friend Bella Hadid, too, was present at the Met Gala 2017 wearing a shimmering black catsuit by designer Alexander Wang. “It was exciting to do a bodysuit for the Met, because I felt that it was something that hasn’t been explored,” Wang told Vogue, adding that the suit showed Hadid's perfect figure. In fact, Hadid had to wear the suit first before it was sewn in.

Other stars at the event were Gwyneth Paltrow, dressed in a beautiful light pink Calvin Klein off-shoulder gown. Australian model Miranda Kerr looked stunning in a reddish pink gown. Also present were Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Kerry Washington, Jaden Smith and Celine Dion.