Cardi B responds to backlash for referring to Met Gala designer only as ‘Asian’
By Bryan Ke
Cardi B faced online criticism after forgetting the name of her Met Gala dress designer and referring to them only as “Asian,” prompting her to release a now-deleted video defending herself against the backlash.
Key points:
- The incident occurred during an interview with Emma Chamberlain for Vogue on the red carpet of the 2024 Met Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Monday night.
- When asked by Chamberlain about her mood and about the designer of her dress, the 31-year-old “WAP” singer responded, “I feel amazing. It’s this amazing designer. They’re Asian and everything. So yeah.”
- Vogue’s former Managing Editor Gilbert Cheah called out the rapper in an Instagram comment, writing, “For the record and recognition, and no thanks to Cardi B, the designer of her gown is Sensen Lii who’s Chinese. I personally think it’s boring and not even on theme but she chose it and should have at least remembered his name and not just that he’s ‘Asian.’”
The details:
- Shortly after the backlash was sparked on social media, Cardi B clarified her side of the story in a now-deleted Instagram Story post re-shared on X, explaining how she was “scared” and “had a lot of things” on her mind at the time.
- “When I was getting interviewed, I kind of forgot [how] to pronounce the designer’s name, [because] his name is a little bit complicated,” she said. “I said ‘Asian designer’ because I know that the designer was Asian but I wasn’t sure what nationality the designer was … [because] I feel like I don’t wanna get somebody’s nationality mixed up so I said ‘Asian designer.’”
so instead of apologizing that she referred to the designer as “asian & everything” she posted this.
“I had a lot of things on my mind”
but cardi has already deleted the video. pic.twitter.com/urmzTCHGaj
— bear (@oplivio) May 8, 2024
- In an Instagram post, Lii explained that the dress was designed around this year’s Met Gala theme, “The Garden of Time.” The designer noted that he associated fertile vast black soil with the theme and used nearly 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) of organza fabric for the dress.
- While Lii did not comment on Cardi B forgetting his name on Instagram, the controversy has reportedly drawn significant attention to his Chinese fashion brand Windowsen.
- Lii, who grew up in China, is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in Belgium. A winner of Vfiles collective catwalk in 2018, Lii has collaborated with retail giants such as Nike and Beats by Dre.
- Lii’s fashion has captured the attention of celebrities such as Madonna, Rihanna and Doja Cat.
Reactions:
- Many Instagram users blasted Cardi for her flub, with one user commenting, “The dress is incredible! So sorry it had to be worn by someone with ZERO respect for fashion.”
- “Sensen Lii is the name Cardi didn’t care to memorize,” another comment read.
- “Yes it’s a big deal to forget the name of the one who designed your clothes, especially for an event like this, just dismissive, uncouth and ungrateful. Just there for the clout not impact or relevance,” one Instagram user wrote.
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