In May 2026, an image circulated online supposedly showing a woman named Laree Chante attending the 2026 Met Gala in a dress made of newspaper articles about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
For example, an X user shared the alleged images on May 5 (archived) with the caption, "Best dress at the Gala! RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES."
The image also appeared on Facebook and Instagram, sometimes with similar images of the supposed gala attendee. Snopes readers contacted us to ask whether it was an authentic image from the Met Gala's red carpet or a digital creation.
We first uploaded the image into Google Lens to perform a reverse image search. Next, we used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo with the phrase, "Laree Chante Met Gala Dress."
If the scene in the image was real, photographers on the Met Gala's red carpet would have documented it, and evidence would exist in credible media repositories, such as Getty Images. That was not the case.
Reviewing a list of Met Gala attendees published by Vanity Fair revealed that no one named Laree Chante had attended.
The image did not authentically depict an attendee's dress. It was generated using artificial intelligence tools. Therefore, we've labeled the image fake.
Searching for the image's source was relatively easy: The Instagram account @mslareechante shared the image on May 4. The account's bio described Chante as "Your AI Prompt Queen," noting that she used AI to turn "REAL photos in Magic."
The Instagram account was mostly made up of AI-generated media, and the Epstein newspaper image was not the only AI-generated image related to the Met Gala. The images posted directly before and after were another newspaper-themed dress with text reading "America's Got A Problem, Your Voice Is Your Right," and an American flag-themed dress with text reading "This Is Stolen Land, We Built This Country, History Is A Story We Tell."
We contacted a manager of the Instagram account to learn more about the image's creation, such as what software its creator used and their motivations for sharing it. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in April 2026, we traced the source of multiple fake images purportedly showing Epstein with the U.S. first lady, Melania Trump.