Why Cardi B Called Her Met Gala Dress Designer ‘Asian’

Cardi B “didn’t mean to be offensive” when she called the designer of her 2024 Met Gala dress “Asian and everything” on the red carpet.

The 31-year-old rapper is under fire for not identifying himself correctly Sensen Lii van Windowsen as the creator of her flowing black dress that covered almost the entire carpet and required seven assistants to operate the cascading train. Following her comments, which were made Fashion During Fashion’s Biggest Night on Monday, May 6, Cardi was called out online for being racially insensitive.

“For the record and credit, and not thanks to Cardi B: the designer of her dress is Sensen Lii, a Chinese. Making the dress took two months. Personally, I think it’s boring and not even on theme, but she made the choice and should have at least remembered his name and not just that he’s “Asian.” Fashion’s former director Gilbert Chea wrote via Instagram, per Billboard.

After more criticism came in, Cardi released a statement of her own in an attempt to clear the air.

“First and foremost, I was very scared when I was on the red carpet,” Cardi said in a now-expired Instagram post. TMZ. “The dress was supposed to be on a small stage, and I practiced how to pose on stage. But on the carpet I wasn’t allowed to use the stage. So I had a lot of things on my mind and I was rushed to the front of the line.

Cardi said she “forgot about it [how] to pronounce the designer’s name, because his name is a bit complicated.”

“I thought: Damn. How do I pronounce his name?’ My mind was just racing. [I] didn’t mean to be offensive. [I said] ‘Asian designer’ because I knew the designer was Asian, but I wasn’t sure what nationality the designer was,” Cardi added.

In a follow-up post shared via X on Wednesday, May 8, Cardi praised Lii and Windowsen. “I have to thank Windowsen from Sensen Lii again!!! “I chose you because of your amazing talent and you managed to make this Met Gala an evening to remember,” she wrote.

After the ball, Lii took to Instagram spray over his work at Cardi’s look.

“This year’s Met Gala theme is ‘The Garden of Time.’ I associated the fertile, vast black earth with the theme: On the vast black earth, all kinds of beautiful flowers grow, rich earth used for planting crops and flowers. In this vast black earth grows a single black rose. Nearly 3,000 meters of organza was used for the entire dress. It symbolizes the vastness of the country,” he wrote alongside a video of Cardi in the ensemble.