Fashion’s Faustian pact: the high cost of Jeff Bezos’s Met Gala patronage

Billionaire’s role as honorary chair and main source of funding has led to boycotts and criticism event has lost its cachet The Met Gala in New York is the grandest and ritziest event in the fashion calendar, and an indicator of the growing ties between designers, celebrity and power. But with tech billionaires now joining the cohort, this year’s party may be its most controversial yet. All eyes are on the guest list – and their outfits – to launch the fashion exhibition Costume Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman are chairing the event with Vogue’s Anna Wintour, and tickets cost about $100,000 (£73,500). But in a plot twist worthy of the new Devil Wears Prada film, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the Met Gala’s new honorary chairs, will be joining the 450 guests on the museum steps on Monday. The billionaires’ involvement as the main source of funding for the exhibition and the party has set tongues wagging, reviving rumours that the Amazon founder will buy Condé Nast, the parent company of Vogue, which oversees the gala. Last year there was speculation that Bezos would snap up the company as