Cardi B Clarifies Why She Referred to Her Met Gala Dress Designer as 'Asian’ Instead of His Name

Cardi B is setting the record straight.

After referring to Sensen Lii of Windowsen, the designer behind her jaw-dropping 2024 Met Gala black dress, as "Asian and everything" instead of by his name during an interview at the event with Vogue, the rapper, 31, offered an explanation on Instagram.

"First and first, when I was on the red carpet, I was very scared," the Grammy-winning MC explained in the expired post shared by TMZ.

"The dress was supposed to be on a little podium, and I've been practicing how to pose on the podium. But on the carpet, I wasn't allowed to use the podium. So I had a lot of things in my mind, and I was being rushed to the front of the line."

The rapper said that she "forgot [how] to pronounce the designer’s name because his name is a little bit complicated."

"I was like, 'Damn.' How do I pronounce his name? My mind was just racing," she added. Noting that she "didn't want to be offensive," she explained that she said, "'Asian designer' because I knew the designer was Asian, but I wasn’t sure what nationality the designer was."

According to Billboard, some of the backlash Cardi received came from Vogue‘s former managing director Gilbert Cheah. He called her out in the comment section of an Instagram Reel of her at the event.

"For the record and recognition, and no thanks to Cardi B, the designer of her gown is Sensen Lii who’s Chinese. The gown took two months to make. 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,'" wrote Cheah, per the outlet. Cheah is Peranakan (mixed Chinese and Malay/Indonesian heritage).

The musician referred to the backlash in her post, expressing, "You’re trying to offend me, but you’re actually offending the people behind the scenes.”

Cardi also made sure her feelings about the situation were clear by later sharing a video of herself posing in the dress on both X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. "I have to give another thank you to Windowsen by Sensen Lii!!! I chose you because of your amazing talent and you came through really making this Met Gala a night to remember," she wrote.

The same video was shared on Windowsen's Instagram account, along with a caption explaining the inspiration behind the dress.

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"I associated fertile, Vast Black Soil with the theme —All kinds of beautiful flowers grow on the Vast Black Soil rich earth used for planting Crops and flowers. A single black rose grows in this Vast Black Soil," the caption read. "The whole dress uses nearly 3000 meters of organza. It symbolizes the vastness of the land."