Anna Wintour has welcomed the Bezoses—and their patronage—with open arms, but after a controversial Met Gala, industry insiders are less enthusiastic. The press conference for the Met Costume Institute's spring exhibition felt like a feudal lady addressing her serfs, with Wintour introducing Lauren Sánchez Bezos as a 'force for joy' and praising the couple for 'genuinely caring about giving back.' Meanwhile, protests against the Bezoses' involvement had been raging for days, highlighting a stark discrepancy between public sentiment and the deference within the museum.
The Met Gala has become a magnet for anti-excess protests, but this year's event was its most controversial yet, owing to the $10 million patronage of honorary co-chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. While Bezos previously bankrolled the gala in 2012 as Amazon's lead sponsor, this year's event came amid soaring inequality and Bezos's declining popularity with New York City's left-leaning fashion and arts crowd, fueled by his growing wealth and Donald Trump-appeasing decisions.
In protest, the group Everyone Hates Elon projected interviews with disgruntled Amazon workers onto Bezos's Manhattan penthouse and circulated 300 containers of fake urine inside the museum to highlight reports of drivers having to urinate in bottles. Former US Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson co-hosted a rival 'Ball Without Billionaires,' putting Amazon workers on the catwalk, and turned down work with a dream client to boycott the event. 'Fashion has always had a talent for laundering... This is not new. But I have my limits,' she wrote.
Further criticism came from the film The Devil Wears Prada 2, whose plot features a tech baron attempting to buy a fashion magazine for his girlfriend—echoing unsubstantiated rumours that Bezos wants to buy Vogue for his wife. Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna called the similarity a coincidence, but the cultural backlash suggests fashion's relationship with tech barons may be rupturing.
The Met Gala raised $42 million this year, with tickets costing $100,000—up from $35,000 in 2022—coinciding with an increasingly tech-oriented guestlist. While the gala funds the Costume Institute's exhibitions, the growing influence of billionaires like Bezos has sparked a revolt among fashion insiders, questioning whether the industry's embrace of big tech is genius or a sellout.
