If you can believe it, we’re just two months away from the 2026 Met Gala, and there’s plenty to discuss before then.
The Spring 2026 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute is “Costume Art,” and the theme will address “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection,” pairing together historical and contemporary garments with paintings, sculptures, and other objects in the Met.
As for the dress code, this year’s celebrity guests will interpret the phrase “Fashion is Art” when creating their red carpet looks. So, make of that what you will.
Setting aside confusion over the somewhat vague dress code, it seems everyone is pumped for the first Monday in May to roll around once more — especially with the promise of a rare Beyoncé appearance on the famous Met steps.
However, there has been a fair amount of backlash over the Bezoses’ involvement in the whole thing, if you’ll allow me to explain.
So, as noted by Vogue, this year’s exhibition at the Met has been “made possible” by the financial funding of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, his wife, and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
For some context, the Met Gala is typically sponsored by a luxury fashion brand. For example, Louis Vuitton sponsored the event last year and helped raise $26 million for the museum. However, that certainly doesn’t mean that fashion houses are always the sponsors. Past sponsors of the Met Gala have included TikTok, Instagram, Apple, Yahoo, and even Amazon.
There’s been a lot of chatter in the past year or so about how tech billionaires have been encroaching on the fashion industry, and the Bezoses’ Met Gala ties come after Anna faced intense backlash for giving Lauren a digital Vogue cover and accompanying interview to platform her and Jeff’s divisive wedding in Venice last June.
So, in November 2025, when Jeff and Lauren were first named as lead sponsors of this year’s event, they faced accusations of “trying to buy their way into high society and politics.” “It was inevitable that Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sánchez Bezos, thirsty for cultural domination, would sink their claws into the Met Gala via sponsorship,” one fashion journalist wrote on X. “Their entire media rollout has been leading to this exact moment.”
And now, it turns out that Jeff and Lauren’s roles at the 2026 Met Gala are going to be more significant than we expected, with the couple recently being confirmed as honorary co-chairs alongside Bey, Anna, Nicole, and Venus.
Speaking on Today this week, Lauren discussed her involvement in the prestigious event, saying: “It has been such a fun and meaningful experience, and when Anna called me and said, ‘Do you want to co-chair and also be the sponsors of the Met?’ I was so honored.”
“Then she told me the theme: Fashion is Art,” she continued. “These designers are true artists. Elsa Schiaparelli was best friends with Salvador Dalí, and his medium was a canvas, and hers was clothing. It’s going to be incredible to see what everyone wears and to be able to really honor all these designers. I cannot wait.”
In an interview with CNN last year, Anna was asked about the criticism and defended having the Bezoses as lead sponsors of the 2026 Met Gala, specifically saying that Lauren is “going to be a wonderful asset to the museum and to the event.”
“[I’m] very grateful for her incredible generosity, and she’s a great lover of costume and obviously of fashion, so we’re thrilled she’s part of the night,” she said.
Well, as Met Monday gets closer, I have a feeling this discourse isn’t going to die down anytime soon. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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