Cardi B opens up about “competing with herself” for the Met Gala

Cardi B opened up about the anxiety she feels before stepping foot on the Met Gala red carpet, but as the night went on, it didn’t stop the rapper from turning up four different looks throughout the evening.

Cardi made her Met Gala debut in 2018 and has also appeared at the 2019 and 2022 Met Galas. She’s turned up big looks, exhibiting the height of avant-garde fashion.

At the 2023 Met Gala, she walked the red carpet wearing a dress designed by Chen Peng Studio, featuring a gown made up of velvet oversized black flowers on the skirt, and a sleeveless white shirt and black tie nod to Karl Lagerfeld at the top.

A detailed homage to Karl Lagerfeld

“My inspirations for this look, it’s just Chanel and Karl. It’s a little mix because if you see the top, it’s giving the infamous Karl suits with the tie, the white collar. Almost like his suit, but not really,” Cardi explained in Vogue’s exclusive look of the star getting ready for the event.

“At the bottom, if you see the skirt it has the camellias, which is the flower. So yeah, it’s just a little bit of everything. It’s representing the house of Chanel and Karl. Karl is so infamous for his gray hair,” she added, referring to her gray wig with a black headband.

She completed the look with a pair of black velvet opera gloves and dangling oversized pearl earrings.

And despite already having established herself as a fixture at the Met Gala who has put on showstopping looks, she admits the event still makes her anxious.

“Every single time that I got to the Met, it’s fun of course. … After my first time going to the Met, I always get anxiety. And the anxieties just grow and grow and grow,” she explained.

She continued: “Maybe because my looks are so spectacular that people just expect every year to be more amazing than the last, and it’s so hard because imagine competing with myself. That is sickening.”

Cardi B had four outfit reveals throughout the Met Gala festivities,

Besides her red carpet look, the rapper revealed an earlier look when she stepped out of her hotel, wearing a pink mermaid gown, complete with silver embellishments around the edge, a tulle back piece extending over her head, and pearl bracelets, necklace, and headpiece.

After transforming into her red carpet look, she transformed again into a Richard Quinn-designed pink tweed hounds tooth gown, wearing a huge diamond cross necklace for the event itself.

For her after-party look, she wore a skin-tight custom gown by Sergio Castaño Peña of Syndical Chamber, with a velvet-silk pattern that is actually laser printed articles published about Lagerfeld’s first collection for Chanel.