Soon after Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding, Lauren was given a solo Vogue cover in her wedding gown. To be fair, it was only a “digital cover,” but still – it was more than most tacky golddiggers have gotten in the past. Everyone knew that there was some kind of quid pro quo behind-the-scenes, and soon after the wedding, rumors even circulated that Bezos planned to “buy” Conde Nast/Vogue for Lauren as a wedding present. It was all very… Susan in Citizen Kane. Well, Jeff Bezos is not going to buy Vogue for his bride (not yet, at least). But he and Lauren gave generously to Costume Institute’s latest expansion within the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met will now host the Conde M. Nast Galleries, an expansion which will feature a new spring exhibition, an exhibition underwritten by Jeff and Lauren Bezos. They are also sponsoring next year’s Met Gala, and it seems likely that they will both be co-chairs of the gala. From the Times:
[The Conde M. Nast Galleries] is a significant achievement for Anna Wintour, the doyenne of the Met Gala and global editorial director of Condé Nast’s Vogue, who is a trustee of the museum and was in charge of fund-raising to pay for the project, estimated at more than $50 million.
It also represents a step forward in the evolution of fashion at the museum — which in 1946 absorbed the Museum of Costume Art — and reflects the growing primacy of fashion in the culture at large. Over the years, the accessible, often high-minded, Costume Institute shows, along with its Met Gala opening party, have played an important role in bringing attention to the museum.
The upcoming spring exhibition, on view through Jan. 10, 2027, was underwritten by Jeff and Lauren Bezos, as was the gala. Bezos, who was also a host at the Amazon-sponsored 2012 gala, has long been close to Wintour, who featured Lauren Sánchez Bezos as a bride on a digital Vogue cover this summer, along with a multipage story by Malle on the pair’s wedding, in Venice. (The fact the Bezoses attended the Trump inauguration, while Wintour was a prominent Biden supporter, does not seem to have affected their friendship. “Lauren loves costumes,” Wintour said. “She loves fashion.”) Saint Laurent is the sponsor of the monograph that will accompany the exhibition.
The Met Gala, scheduled for its usual first Monday in May, has yet to announce its celebrity co-chairs, honorary chairs and dress code. But given the costume exhibition’s new pride of place on the ground floor, Bolton said: “We want this to be a massive celebration.”
You can read more about the new exhibition here at Vogue, including more of an explanation about next year’s Met Gala theme, “Costume Art.” As in, the kind of fashion/costume you can see within art, like the enlarged sleeves from a Mary Cassatt painting, or the billowing fabric from a sculpture of a Greek goddess. It’s actually a big enough theme to really bring out some interesting fashion, although I thought the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” theme for this year’s gala was AMAZING.
As for Laurn and Jeff Bezos…here’s my thing, I’m forcing myself to look at this as a “glass half full” situation. Bezos has enough money to buy Conde Nast outright and give it to Lauren. But he’s not doing that, because somewhere along the line, both Jeff and Lauren understand that if they simply take over Vogue, that doesn’t make them tastemakers or style gatekeepers. It just makes them filthy rich and tacky, and everyone would see the Conde Nast brand as degraded because of them. When they’re underwriting a Costume Institute expansion and sponsoring the Met Gala, they’re getting more bang for their buck: legitimacy through “philanthropy.” An attachment to the cool tastemakers without actually trying to “buy” Vogue outright. It shows self-awareness on their part that they lack class, authenticity and good taste.
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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of Vogue.
