05/06/2026
Just hours before the 2026 Met Gala, hundreds of people gathered in the Meatpacking District to watch a different kind of fashion spectacle. There were no A-listers, just ordinary people in homemade outfits bearing slogans like “The Devil Wears Amazon” and “No AI.” April Verrett, the president of Service Employees International Union, stood in front of a makeshift bodega that read “Labor Is Power.” She was wearing a bobbed blonde wig and sunglasses. She spoke about the crisis working Americans were facing: the erosion of voting rights, ICE surveillance, and AI. “The cherry on top of this s**t sundae is that our paychecks don’t cover the cost of living in MAGA America,” she said.
Ball Without Billionaires was hosted by fashion stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and Abbott Elementary actress Lisa Ann Walter emceed, throwing choice insults at Mr. Bezos: “Temu Lex Luthor,” “Q-tip with a yacht,” and “very bald.” Workers harmed by Amazon walked the red carpet in custom couture — among them warehouse employees injured on the job, local activists organizing against the company’s AI data centers, and laid-off Washington ‘Post’ staff.
Read Cat Zhang’s dispatch from the event: https://nymag.visitlink.me/VoAJQd
