Cardi B on “Nerve-Racking” Prep for Met Gala: “We Want Everything to Be Iconic”

During a recent interview, the Grammy Award winning rapper opened up on how she and stylist Kollin Carter approach fashion’s biggest night: “You need to remember us forever.”

Cardi B attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES

Cardi B says the strategy remains the same for every Met Gala appearance: “Be iconic.”

The Grammy Award-winning rapper and her stylist Kollin Carter — recently featured on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter’s Top Stylists issue — have been in prep mode for months as she has emerged as one to watch on fashion’s biggest night thanks to head-turning appearances that date back to 2018.

“We’re always thinking ahead,” Cardi told THR in late March during a brief interview inside Sunset Tower, site of a celebration for Hollywood’s top image makers. “I feel like the Met Gala is almost like going to the Grammys. It’s very nerve-racking, and even though we make it look so easy, we really be so nervous.”

Though Cardi remained tight-lipped about what she and Carter have in store for this year, they’ll have plenty of inspiration to pull from. Taking place on Monday, the 2024 installment of the Met Gala celebrates the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, and will carry a dress code of “The Garden of Time.” Andrew Bolton, a curator at the Costume Institute, told Vogue, “It is very much an ode to nature and the emotional poetics of fashion. One thing I hope this show will activate is that sensorial appreciation of fashion.”

That should be no issue for Cardi and Carter who have shown an appreciation for fashion in their prior Met Gala collaborations, seen below. “We always try to make sure that everything goes right, that everything be iconic. We want everything to be iconic. I know people sometimes be like, ‘Oh, it’s not about who is there and who is not,’ but it’s like, no, you need to remember us forever.”

Cardi B at the Met Gala in 2023, wearing custom Chenpeng Studio as a tribute to “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty.” JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES

Cardi B, in 2022, wearing a column dress by Atelier Versace that was embroidered with golden metal chains and Medusa medallions as a tribute to gilded glamour. JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES

For the Camp: Notes on Fashion theme in 2019, Cardi B chose a dramatic burgundy gown by Thom Browne with feathers, an embellished headpiece and quilted train. NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES

Cardi B arrived arm-in-arm with Moschino’s Jeremy Scott in 2018, as the twosome paid tribute to the theme of Heavenly Bodies in custom looks by the designer. NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES