New York City's mayor just BOYCOTTED the Met Gala
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Sid Shniad
May 6, 2026, 6:46:29 PM (4 days ago) May 6
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BREAKING🚨 New York City's mayor just BOYCOTTED the Met Gala — and what he did instead is the most powerful statement about class in America you'll see all year.
While celebrities walked the red carpet at fashion's biggest night yesterday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the evening spotlighting the garment workers, tailors, and retail employees who actually make the fashion industry possible.
He released a photo series on Instagram showing six behind-the-scenes fashion workers — people who have spent decades sewing clothes, fitting suits, and stocking department stores while the billionaires who profit from their labor partied at the Met.
Mamdani wrote: "While the world's eyes are on fashion's biggest night, we're turning ours to the garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running. From true love found on the picket line to a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement—meet the New Yorkers who make it all possible."
The photo series — shot by New York-based artist Kara McCurdy and published by i-D magazine — featured six people whose names you've never heard but whose work makes fashion exist.
A master tailor from Saks Fifth Avenue. A Macy's worker with nearly four decades of service. Tailors from Pakistan and Mexico running a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement. A couple who met on a picket line fighting for workers' rights in the garment district.
These are the people who make the $35,000 gowns celebrities wear for three hours at the Met Gala.
And Mamdani made sure the world saw them on the same night Anna Wintour made sure the world saw Jeff Bezos.
Because this year's Met Gala was sponsored by Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez.
The man who made his fortune by squeezing warehouse workers, busting unions, and paying poverty wages to delivery drivers was the honorary chair of fashion's most exclusive night — a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art that charges $75,000 per ticket.
Protesters plastered New York City with posters reading "Boycott the Met Gala," "Met Gala: Sponsored by those who support ICE," and "Met Gala: Sponsored by labor exploitation."
Bella Hadid — a model who has attended multiple Met Galas and appeared on dozens of Vogue covers — liked an Instagram post calling out celebrities who planned to attend this year's event while Bezos bankrolled it.
Actress Taraji P. Henson, who attended past Met Galas, publicly criticized this year's event for the same reason.
And Mayor Zohran Mamdani — New York City's first democratic socialist mayor, elected in a landslide in November 2025 — announced a month ago that he and his wife Rama Duwaji would skip the gala entirely.
He told Hell Gate: "I want to focus on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable."
Translation: I'm not going to a $75,000-per-ticket party sponsored by a billionaire union-buster while New Yorkers can't afford rent.
This broke a decades-long tradition. NYC mayors have historically attended the Met Gala as part of their role representing the city's cultural institutions. Michael Bloomberg went. Bill de Blasio went once. Eric Adams went once.
But Mamdani is not like those mayors.
He ran on taxing millionaires to fund affordable housing. He campaigned on expanding rent control, protecting tenants, and cracking down on corporate landlords. He won because working-class New Yorkers were sick of watching billionaires get richer while they got priced out of their own city.
And on the night the fashion industry threw itself a party sponsored by one of the richest men on Earth, Mamdani reminded people who actually keeps that industry running.
Not Anna Wintour. Not the Kardashians. Not Jeff Bezos.
The seamstresses. The tailors. The retail workers. The delivery drivers. The people whose labor generates billions in profits and gets none of the credit.
Mamdani told i-D magazine: "The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes—seamstresses, tailors, retail workers, delivery drivers—whose immense talent and dedication deserves to be celebrated."
The Instagram post showing the six workers got 59,500 likes, 4,500 reposts, and 8,100 shares in less than 24 hours.
One person commented: "This man is pure class—but also pure solidarity."
Another wrote: "Love you so much for not going to the gala and for spotlighting these deserving industry workers!"
A third said: "this is IT. this is CULTURE!!!!!!!!"
And they're right.
Because this is what leadership looks like when it's not bought by billionaires.
The Met Gala raised millions of dollars for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That's important. Museums need funding. The arts matter.
But the optics of charging $75,000 per ticket to a party sponsored by Jeff Bezos — a man who pays his warehouse workers so little they qualify for food stamps — while New Yorkers struggle to afford groceries is obscene.
Mamdani saw that. And instead of playing along, he used the same night to shine a light on the people the fashion industry exploits and ignores.
That's not a boycott for the sake of a boycott.
That's using power to shift who gets seen and who gets celebrated.
Share this everywhere.
While billionaires partied at the Met Gala, NYC's mayor spent the night honoring the workers who make fashion possible.
That's what solidarity looks like.
While celebrities walked the red carpet at fashion's biggest night yesterday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the evening spotlighting the garment workers, tailors, and retail employees who actually make the fashion industry possible.
He released a photo series on Instagram showing six behind-the-scenes fashion workers — people who have spent decades sewing clothes, fitting suits, and stocking department stores while the billionaires who profit from their labor partied at the Met.
Mamdani wrote: "While the world's eyes are on fashion's biggest night, we're turning ours to the garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running. From true love found on the picket line to a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement—meet the New Yorkers who make it all possible."
The photo series — shot by New York-based artist Kara McCurdy and published by i-D magazine — featured six people whose names you've never heard but whose work makes fashion exist.
A master tailor from Saks Fifth Avenue. A Macy's worker with nearly four decades of service. Tailors from Pakistan and Mexico running a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement. A couple who met on a picket line fighting for workers' rights in the garment district.
These are the people who make the $35,000 gowns celebrities wear for three hours at the Met Gala.
And Mamdani made sure the world saw them on the same night Anna Wintour made sure the world saw Jeff Bezos.
Because this year's Met Gala was sponsored by Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez.
The man who made his fortune by squeezing warehouse workers, busting unions, and paying poverty wages to delivery drivers was the honorary chair of fashion's most exclusive night — a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art that charges $75,000 per ticket.
Protesters plastered New York City with posters reading "Boycott the Met Gala," "Met Gala: Sponsored by those who support ICE," and "Met Gala: Sponsored by labor exploitation."
Bella Hadid — a model who has attended multiple Met Galas and appeared on dozens of Vogue covers — liked an Instagram post calling out celebrities who planned to attend this year's event while Bezos bankrolled it.
Actress Taraji P. Henson, who attended past Met Galas, publicly criticized this year's event for the same reason.
And Mayor Zohran Mamdani — New York City's first democratic socialist mayor, elected in a landslide in November 2025 — announced a month ago that he and his wife Rama Duwaji would skip the gala entirely.
He told Hell Gate: "I want to focus on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable."
Translation: I'm not going to a $75,000-per-ticket party sponsored by a billionaire union-buster while New Yorkers can't afford rent.
This broke a decades-long tradition. NYC mayors have historically attended the Met Gala as part of their role representing the city's cultural institutions. Michael Bloomberg went. Bill de Blasio went once. Eric Adams went once.
But Mamdani is not like those mayors.
He ran on taxing millionaires to fund affordable housing. He campaigned on expanding rent control, protecting tenants, and cracking down on corporate landlords. He won because working-class New Yorkers were sick of watching billionaires get richer while they got priced out of their own city.
And on the night the fashion industry threw itself a party sponsored by one of the richest men on Earth, Mamdani reminded people who actually keeps that industry running.
Not Anna Wintour. Not the Kardashians. Not Jeff Bezos.
The seamstresses. The tailors. The retail workers. The delivery drivers. The people whose labor generates billions in profits and gets none of the credit.
Mamdani told i-D magazine: "The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes—seamstresses, tailors, retail workers, delivery drivers—whose immense talent and dedication deserves to be celebrated."
The Instagram post showing the six workers got 59,500 likes, 4,500 reposts, and 8,100 shares in less than 24 hours.
One person commented: "This man is pure class—but also pure solidarity."
Another wrote: "Love you so much for not going to the gala and for spotlighting these deserving industry workers!"
A third said: "this is IT. this is CULTURE!!!!!!!!"
And they're right.
Because this is what leadership looks like when it's not bought by billionaires.
The Met Gala raised millions of dollars for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That's important. Museums need funding. The arts matter.
But the optics of charging $75,000 per ticket to a party sponsored by Jeff Bezos — a man who pays his warehouse workers so little they qualify for food stamps — while New Yorkers struggle to afford groceries is obscene.
Mamdani saw that. And instead of playing along, he used the same night to shine a light on the people the fashion industry exploits and ignores.
That's not a boycott for the sake of a boycott.
That's using power to shift who gets seen and who gets celebrated.
Share this everywhere.
While billionaires partied at the Met Gala, NYC's mayor spent the night honoring the workers who make fashion possible.
That's what solidarity looks like.
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