Cut to @McQueen_Vault, an Instagram account dedicated to McQueen, which found a 1999 Flaunt magazine photo spread of Ryder wearing (seemingly) the same dress. “The Givenchy Haute Couture dress Kendall Jenner wore to the Met Gala last night, designed by Alexander McQueen for Fall Winter 1999, worn by Winona Ryder and photographed by Warwick Saint for Flaunt Magazine in 1999,” wrote Perfect magazine, which reposted the pics on Instagram.
Since the Ryder revelation, social media has been working through feelings of betrayal, confusion, disappointment, and defensiveness. “What a scam,” and “Why would they lie that’s so fucking weird,” wrote X users. Said one IG commenter, “Maybe could’ve said ‘not worn out in public by anyone else’ but clearly someone on Kendall’s team didn’t do their homework.” One TikToker lamented, “She was probably just uninformed but she fooled us all! Dress is still lovely but for us archive lovers the allure is lost!”
Still others became convinced that the dress worn by Ryder was a replica, and Jenner was telling the truth after all—a theory which was backed up by an anonymous source speaking to The Cut.
So, case closed?