Rihanna returned to the red carpet Monday in her first major public appearance since the alleged Chris Brown attack.

Clad in a Dolce and Gabbana suit and bow tie, the singer, 21, was the last celebrity to arrive at the annual Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum gala in NYC.

The singer, whose hair had blonde highlights and was slicked to one slide, happily posed for photographers but did not do any press.

“Rihanna is so sweet and charismatic, she just said hello to me,” Emmy Rossum wrote on her Twitter page at the event.

Rihanna also mingled a lot with Katy Perry, with whom she recently vacationed to her native Barbados.

“Rihanna and Katy were extremely close,” an attendee told Us. “They held hands and hugged almost the entire way up the carpet and were inseparable inside.”

Hordes of other celebrities – from Madonna to Victoria Beckham – attended the gala, which this year served as the kickoff to “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” exhibit.

Kate Moss co-chaired the event with Justin Timberlake.

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