Tech power has seeped into nearly every corner of society and on Monday night in New York, it was on full display at fashion’s biggest event, where honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez dominated the spotlight.
The pair reportedly helped bankroll this year’s Met Gala with a $US10 million ($13.9 million) contribution, while Amazon snapped up tables alongside other tech heavyweights including OpenAI, Meta, Snapchat and Shopify.
People are taking notice. When the tech billionaire and his wife were announced as the lead sponsors of this year’s gala, one poster designed by an activist group read: “The Bezos Met Gala: Brought to you by worker exploitation.” Another reads: “The Bezos Met Gala Invites you to Party like it’s 1939: Democracy is so last season.”
When Anna Wintour took over as Chair in 1995, tables cost roughly $15,000, and individual tickets were in the low thousands. This year, the tables were reportedly going for $525,000, while individual seats reportedly hit a record-breaking $158,000, a considerable jump from last year’s price of roughly $105,000 a head.
The Met Gala hasn’t exactly turned into a Silicon Valley conference yet, but the tech world has been steadily weaving itself into the iconic event. The Independent called this year’s event “a tech bro ball”. Rolling Stones called it “a Tech Bro Takeover”. Vanity Fair: “Tech Gala”.
The gala is an annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, and held on the first Monday in May. This year’s official dress code is “Fashion Is Art,” and follows from the theme “Costume Art,” which accompanies the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute spring exhibition, highlighting the relationship between fashion and the body.
Historically, celebrities including models, actors and cultural luminaries walked the famous steps. This year, guests ascending the glamorous venue for photos included Amazon executives Christine Beauchamp and Jenny Freshwater, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and head of partnerships at OpenAI Charles Porch.
More crucially, perhaps the most famous tech bro and his wife, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, attended their first ever Met Gala, a sign of their new interest in the fashion world. According to the New York Times, the pair were even seated on Anna Wintour’s table.
Amy Odell told Rolling Stone, “What used to be a closed-door networking event for fashion people is now a big-box clout store for the richest people on the planet.”
Although tech companies have sponsored the event in previous years, the growing presence and high-profile participation of industry leaders suggest that fashion has become the tech world’s latest capitalist frontier.