Rihanna And ASAP Rocky’s 2021 Met Gala Body Language Was Rare & Special
They found love in a hopeless place (2020).
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are officially official, and they now have the red carpet debut to prove it. The couple attended the 2021 Met Gala together on Monday, Sept. 13, and they looked totally at home as they walked the carpet together — and not just because A$AP was wearing a quilted blanket for a solid portion of that walk (goals). Their body language also spoke to their closeness and genuine happiness together, according to Patti Wood, body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma.
In Wood’s opinion, Rihanna and A$AP are in a seriously good place as a couple. First things first, they look very comfortable being pressed up against one another, partly because of A$AP’s sleepover-inspired accessory choice (though that’s not the only reason). “It makes sense that they feel cuddled in, non-verbally; their body language is cuddled into each other, and then protected and covered,” Wood tells Elite Daily. A word to the wise: Next time you want to feel closer to your partner, bring a blanket on your date night out.
Although cuddling at the Met Gala may not be the go-to red carpet pose for most celebs, there’s a first time for everything! And if anyone can snuggle and still look chic, it’s Rihanna and A$AP.
They Genuinely Smiled
A lot of A-listers have a practiced red carpet smile — with all of those cameras, can you really blame them? — but it looked like Rihanna and A$AP could not keep the genuine smiles off their face during their Met Gala debut as a couple.
Wood explains, “If you look at their faces, you can see, especially from cheek up, how the faces are lifted upward. That tells me that they’re true and spontaneous.” She adds, “I don’t see this very often, so it’s really, really wonderful.” So sweet!
Rihanna Enjoyed A$AP’s Affection And Attention
Even when Rihanna and A$AP did pose for the camera, they kept their attention on each other. And it almost seemed like they couldn’t bear to look away from each other. Woods says, “I just love his look toward her.” She continues, explaining that it’s almost as if you can see “a little cartoon bubble above his head, going, ‘Oh my God, she’s so beautiful.’”
And it’s as if Rihanna can read that bubble, too — that, or he complimented her earlier. Woods adds, “Her face is ‘I’m taking it all in.’ And you can see that because her shoulders are slightly more back, her chest is high and forward slightly, and they both have that one foot, that outside foot toward the camera saying, ‘OK, we’ll show for the camera, but we’re focused on each other.’” I mean, if you were standing next to Rihanna and A$AP, where else would your focus be?
Together, They Make The Shape Of A Heart
According to Wood, Rihanna and A$AP’s palpable chemistry on the carpet is rare — making it even more special to see. And they seem to be happily basking in it, too. Woods explains, “He has a spontaneous smile on, and she has that biblical Madonna, kind of beatific smile.”
Not to mention, throughout most of the photos, the couple is close together, completely pressed up against each other, almost as if they’re two halves of one heart. When A$AP shed his quilted blanket and changed into a matching black suit, that illusion was only emphasized more. “If you stand back and look at the two bodies together, you see how they can be considered one. There’s this beautiful almost heart shape,” Wood says.
This kind of overall effect is unusual, but it makes sense with how close they stayed throughout their red carpet walk. “It only happens when bodies are merging, when there’s that connection at the line of the body,” Wood adds.
“[A$AP] wants to be connected, considered as one, like a merging together. If you look all the way up through his body aligned with that left foot, how he wants to touch with his leg, his pelvis, his chest, all the way up to his heart, all the way up through his face, how he wants to be connected to her.” What a hug!
Although Rihanna and A$AP’s body language might not reveal every inside detail of their relationship (I wish), it does seem to show that this couple is in love — deep, comfortable love — and that they have no interest in hiding it.
