The fashion designer behind Rachel Roy’s 2014 Met Gala look is shedding new light on what really went down during Jay-Z and Solange Knowles’ infamous fight after the event.
Oscar Lopez, who created the dress that Roy, 51, wore to that year’s gala, told the Daily Mail on Friday that the fight started over a comment about his design.
According to Lopez, Knowles attacked her brother-in-law because he complimented Roy’s dress. “Beyoncé’s sister felt that it was not proper, so it was a kind of drama there,” the designer alleged.
At the time, Knowles, 39, was caught on security footage lunging at the “Empire State of Mind” rapper, 56, in an elevator while exiting a Met Gala afterparty, punching and kicking him several times while Beyoncé, 44, looked on.
Fans have long speculated that the attack was related to Jay-Z’s reported infidelity, and that Roy, a former friend of Solange’s, was his affair partner.
At the time, Page Six reported that Solange had become drunk at the afterparty and gotten into an argument with Roy. US Weekly quoted an anonymous source as saying the “Cranes in the Sky” singer had “flipped out over something Jay-Z said.”
Knowles and Jay-Z later released a joint statement, calling the incident “unfortunate” and a “private matter that has played out in public.”
“The most important thing is that our family has worked through it,” they wrote.
Both Beyoncé and Jay-Z have since publicly confirmed the rapper’s affair, which the Cowboy Carter singer detailed in her bombshell 2016 album Lemonade. However, neither has ever publicly named the third party.
Still, Roy—a former employee of Jay-Z’s who once served as creative director of his clothing brand Rocawear—was frequently the subject of speculation. Roy was previously married to Damon Dash, Jay-Z’s Rocawear cofounder, but the couple divorced in 2009.
Roy, who left Rocawear to launch her own eponymous line in 2006, has repeatedly denied the speculation. In 2016, Beyoncé’s song “Sorry” described Jay-Z’s mistress as “Becky with the good hair,” and the fashion designer shared an Instagram post appearing to reference the lyric in its caption.
However, Roy later told People, “There is no validity to the idea that the song references me personally. There is no truth to the rumors.”
Lopez didn’t comment on the affair rumors. However, he said the altercation between in-laws—and subsequent speculation about Roy’s role in the drama—did lead to good publicity for his designs.
According to Lopez, even though Roy arrived at the Met Gala late and did not participate in the red carpet, fans began seeking out images of her from the event online after the fight went viral.
“Sometimes you benefit from a scandal, not even being part of it in a very direct way,” Lopez told Daily Mail. “Let’s just call it a collateral damage.”
