The 2026 Met Gala was haunted by Jeff Bezos

The 2026 Met Gala was held at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday, gathering celebrities and fashion insiders from across the world. Technically it's a charity event, intended to raise money for the museum's Costume Institute. For online onlookers, it's a time to transform into passionate amateur fashion critics. 

This year however, much of the commentary was redirected toward the 2026 Met Gala's sponsor and honorary chair: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Following tradition, the 2026 Met Gala theme focused on the museum's new spring exhibition. "Costume Art" opens on May 10, pairing clothing with artworks from across (primarily Western) history. As such, the dress code for the 2026 Met Gala was "Fashion is Art," encouraging attendees to similarly find connections between their garments and artworks in other mediums. 

Many attendees embraced the theme. Sabrina Carpenter wore a Dior gown made from film, specifically from the 1954 film Sabrina. Hudson Williams made his Met Gala debut in baby blue Balenciaga reminiscent of a Spanish matador's outfit, accompanied by makeup inspired by the 2010 film Black Swan. Emma Chamberlain's hand-painted Mugler gown took reference from the medium of paint itself, evoking its textures and colours. 

However, the Met Gala fashion wasn't the only thing turning heads on Monday. Bezos' involvement drew significant attention to this year's gala, provoking considerable criticism beyond the traditional fashion commentary. The Met Gala has previously come under fire for revelling in ostentatious opulence while the rest of the world burns, drawing comparisons to the severe class divide in dystopic YA novel The Hunger Games. 

Now that the fourth richest man in the world has reportedly dropped $10 million to sponsor the event, the vibes for the 2026 Met Gala were even more off than usual. 

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Bezos himself didn't walk the red carpet, leaving his wife, Met Gala co-chair and co-sponsor Lauren Sánchez Bezos, to show off her Schiaparelli dress alone. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan also skipped the spectacle of the red carpet, despite this being their first time at the gala.

Other tech executives did take to the carpet though, including Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel (with his wife Miranda Kerr), Instagram head Adam Mosseri (with his wife Monica), Google co-founder Sergey Brin (with his girlfriend Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto), OpenAI executive Charles Porch (with his husband Robert Denning), and Amazon executives Christine Beauchamp and Jenny Freshwater.

Bezos' Met Gala met with pee bottle protest

Bezos' decision to bypass the Met Gala's famous red carpet may have been informed by the loud backlash to his involvement in the event. On Friday, activist group Everyone Hates Elon left approximately 300 bottles of fake urine inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a reference to allegations that Amazon workers have been forced to pee in bottles to keep on schedule amidst gruelling working conditions.

"Jeff Bezos's company Amazon is literally being sued for forcing workers to urinate in bottles," the group said in a statement posted to Instagram. "Amazon avoids MILLIONS in tax and Bezos is one of the world's richest men. The Met Museum is taking the PISS by having Jeff honoured as their Gala host."

The protestors partook in their own guerilla installation art outside the museum as well, attaching a basket of empty plastic bottles to a lamppost alongside a sign encouraging people to use them as toilets.

"Met Gala VIP toilet," read the sign. "Installed in honor of Met Gala chair Jeff Bezos. Go ahead, it's good enough for his staff."

Everyone Hates Elon also projected calls to boycott the Met Gala upon New York buildings on Sunday. 

Even so, few invitees publicly bowed out of the event, much less cited Bezos as the reason. While some former Met Gala attendees were absent this year, this could be due to any number of reasons other than protest, such as not being invited, having a clash in their schedule, or simply because they didn't feel up to it.

However, previous attendee Taraji P. Henson did explicitly express her distaste for Bezos' involvement in the Met Gala, sharing a post on her Instagram Story juxtaposing the billionaire's wealth with poor working conditions in Amazon warehouses. 

Forbes reports that former gala guests Bella Hadid and Cara Delevingne also liked an Instagram Reel from creator Meredith Lynch, in which she called out celebrities planning to attend this year's gala after also protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Despite this, Delevingne attended anyway, co-hosting the official livestream.

"If you are a celebrity and you attend the Met Gala and you wear the ICE Out pin, please note that I will be dragging you in perpetuity," said Lynch. 

"You cannot wear the ICE Out pin to the Jeff Bezos-backed Met Gala. Jeff Bezos is part of the reason we're in this fucking mess… I know that the funds from the Met Gala go to a good cause in that the Met is a wonderful institution in New York city. But it is wild to me that this event is sponsored by Jeff Bezos, who has backed Trump, who has slashed arts funding."

Sarah Paulson attended the Met Gala as well, wearing a Matières Fécales ballgown with a leather mask designed to look like a one-dollar bill. According to the designer, the collection was "a reflection of the greed and corruption that comes with extreme power." However, Paulson's apparent dig at the ultra wealthy received mixed reactions on social media, with some finding it tone-deaf in light of the context.

One notable person who skipped the Met Gala was New York's favourite mayor Zohran Mamdani. While his predecessors traditionally attended the event, Mamdani told Hell Gate in April that he wanted to keep focusing on his work to make the city affordable. His office also released a spotlight of New York fashion industry workers timed to coincide with the Met Gala, focusing on celebrating the people behind the scenes.

The mayor didn't explicitly state that the Met Gala's association with a tech billionaire accused of exploiting his workers weighed into his decision. However, a source told Page Six that though Mamdani had been invited, the event "goes against everything he believes in."