Protests against the 2026 Met Gala’s honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos did little to dampen the theatrical arrivals at the event on Monday (4 May), the most high-profile fundraising soirée of gala season in New York. The Bezoses reportedly contributed at least $10m, helping to raise a record $42m for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute (surpassing last year’s take of $31m).
Protesters rallied near the gala’s arrivals area brandishing signs that read “Tax the Rich” and “Resistance Red Carpet”. A group called Everyone Hates Elon strategically left around 300 fake bottles of urine throughout the museum labelled with Jeff Bezos’s face and the slogan “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala”, in reference to the practice among Amazon truck drivers of urinating in plastic bottles due to the arduous pace of their deliveries.
Within the event itself, the gala was a typically frictionless display of wealth (tickets cost $100,000 each) and outlandish outfits. Unsurprisingly, some of the most inventive interpretations of the event’s dress code, “fashion is art”, were artists. Amy Sherald, a member of the event’s host committee, attended in a custom Thom Browne look based on one of her own paintings, Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) (2013).
Another eye-catching figure on the verdant arrivals staircase was the artist, actor and stage performer Jordan Roth. He sported a velvety grey outfit by the London-based designer Robert Wun that included a faceless human figure looming over his shoulder, framing his head and torso with its hands. Roth told The Hollywood Reporter that the outfit was inspired by a particular work from the Met’s collection.
“As soon as I knew the theme of this year’s exhibition and gala, I knew I wanted to explore the relationship between figures in classical sculpture, as well as a specific painting in the Met collection, Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Léon Gérôme, in which the sculptor kisses his sculpture as it comes to life,” he said.
Going for a notably more muted look, the artist Tschabalala Self (another co-chair of the event) enlisted her former Bard College class- and room-mate Brandon Blackwood to create her gown and look for the evening. The result was a striking white-silk corseted gown with elements of soft tulle, satin and chiffon. In an interview with Artsy, Self said it struck her as both very contemporary and art historical in its evocations.
“The gown is super contemporary, with lots of different silhouettes,” she said. “It makes me think of Degas’s ballerina sculpture, which is a fusion of this hard bronze sculpture with textile. This garment’s unique textile elements really speak to me, because textiles are such an important part of my practice.”
This year’s Costume Institute exhibition, Costume Art (10 May-10 January 2027), chronicles depictions of dressed figures throughout the Met’s collection, pairing works from its costume collection with art spanning ancient Greek vases to contemporary paintings by Yayoi Kusama. The show marks the debut of the Met’s 12,000-sq.-ft Condé M. Nast Galleries, which will serve as a dedicated and more prominent venue for its blockbuster fashion exhibitions.
The Bezoses may be getting used to being met with protests in artful settings. The couple’s Venice wedding in summer 2025, reported to have cost between $47m and $56m, sparked highly visible protests around the city. According to Forbes, Jeff Bezos, the founder and chairman of Amazon, is currently the fourth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $280bn.
