{"id":775828,"date":"2026-05-05T22:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/775828\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T22:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:05:15","slug":"how-the-met-gala-transformed-into-the-tacky-bezos-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/775828\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Met Gala Transformed Into the Tacky ‘Bezos Ball’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor decades, the first Monday in May has marked one of fashion<\/a>\u2018s biggest nights as A-listers from around the world descend upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art to attend the Met Gala<\/a>. Since 2021, the first gala post-pandemic, its prestigious crown has started to slip.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA wave of influencer integration in the 2021 and 2022 editions saw the gala transition from one of prestige and exclusivity to TikTok fodder. As influencers lost their footing at the gala, however, a new fear started to\u00a0emerge:\u00a0corporations (and the moguls running them) rising to the fore.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn February, it was announced that Jeff Bezos<\/a>, the founder, ex-CEO, and current executive\u00a0chairman\u00a0of Amazon, and his wife, Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos, would serve as honorary chairs for the evening. It was later\u00a0reported\u00a0<\/a>by Page Six that they\u2019d spent \u201cat least\u201d $10 million to sponsor the event and earn the uber-wealthy couple that coveted title. The Met\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0also\u00a0prominently highlights how this year\u2019s exhibition and gala have been \u201cmade possible\u201d by the couple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCritics were quick to point out the sheer irony of their involvement, given that Amazon was at the forefront of the modern fast fashion industry, and its presence in the marketplace led to a rapid decline in clothing quality, with consumers \u2014 as a result of broader economic strains \u2014 being forced to prioritize low price points over fashion (and ethics). The\u00a0Bezos\u2019s\u00a0(Jeff directly, and Lauren by association) have directly harmed the artists and artisans they\u2019ve paid a pretty penny to stand alongside.\u00a0To add fuel to the fire, the plot of \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d echoes longstanding rumors<\/a> that the couple wishes to acquire Cond\u00e9\u00a0Nast, the parent company of several major publications, including Vogue. Despite all this, the Costume Institute, Anna Wintour<\/a>, and Cond\u00e9\u00a0Nast have thus far been willing to overlook everything in the name of staying afloat.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fashion also left much to be desired. The theme, \u201cFashion is Art,\u201d\u00a0invited\u00a0guests to \u201cexpress their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history.\u201d In a similar vein, the exhibit itself, themed \u201cCostume Art,\u201d explores \u201cthe centrality of the dressed body\u201d through different body types, including the naked, classical,\u00a0pregnant\u00a0and aging bodies\u00a0\u2013\u00a0among\u00a0others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the red carpet, at any given moment,\u00a0looked like a poorly constructed collage.\u00a0A general rule of thumb for the Met Gala: if you can (comfortably) wear it to the\u00a0Oscars, you\u00a0should\u00a0probably try\u00a0a little harder.\u00a0That message\u00a0doesn\u2019t seem to have been conveyed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe references (of which there were many) were to be expected, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0here where Hollywood\u2019s growing lack of creativity began to seep through. With thousands of famous pieces of art to reference,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0incredible that there were three separate iterations of \u201cThe Portrait of Madame X\u201d\u00a0from\u00a0Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos (Schiaparelli), Claire\u00a0Foy\u00a0(Erdem), and Julianne Moore (Bottega Veneta).\u00a0\u00a0Statues were also omnipresent, with upwards of 15 stars, including the Jenner sisters (GapStudio and Schiaparelli), Heidi Klum<\/a> (Mike Marino), and Doja Cat (Saint Laurent), all showing up as some iteration of a famous sculpture.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the night wore on, the homogeneity was disrupted by several major arrivals, including Bad Bunny<\/a> (in arresting old-man makeup<\/a>), Madonna (in a Saint Laurent look inspired by Lenora Carrington\u2019s \u201cThe Temptation of St. Anthony\u201d), and Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> (in Olivier Rousteing, who reimagined Caroline Durieux\u2019s \u201cThe Visitor\u201d). This trio, among the best dressed of the evening, had done the research necessary to create a look that was both on theme and unique. They stood out from a crowd whose preparation for the night appeared to be the result of a single Google search for \u201cfamous piece of art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGilbert Flores<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Met Gala stands on solid financial ground, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Costume Institute confirming this year\u2019s record-breaking fundraiser of $42 million, up $11 million from last year \u2014 a boost that can be largely attributed to the Bezos\u2019s hefty contribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, the first Monday in May has marked one of fashion\u2018s biggest nights as A-listers from around…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":775829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16532,71844,22527,171,10574,4002,4061,4062,10569,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-775828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-anna-wintour","9":"tag-bad-bunny","10":"tag-beyoncu00e9","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fashion","13":"tag-heidi-klum","14":"tag-jeff-bezos","15":"tag-lauren-sanchez","16":"tag-met-gala","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116524242024753227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}