Why Zohran Mamdani's refusal to attend the Met Gala is a historic snub to Anna Wintour

Few people dare to say “no” to Anna Wintour. Zohran Mamdani is one of them. New York’s mayor — who is a socialist and a Muslim — has turned down the invitation to attend the Met Gala, which will take place on May 4.

With his “no,” Mamdani has broken a decades‑long tradition — the city’s mayors have historically been regular attendees — while delivering one of the most memorable snubs to the most powerful woman in fashion. The mayor said he wanted to keep his focus on “affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable,” closing the matter without offering much more explanation. Some outlets have gone further, reporting that the mayor told his team the Met Gala is completely out of step with his interests, especially now that he is working on a plan to raise taxes on millionaires — in other words, on most of the guests invited to the event organized by Vogue.

The truth is Mamdani is not the only one put off by this year’s Met Gala, whose main sponsors and honorary hosts are Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez. According to The New York Times, the city is plastered with posters protesting the couple’s involvement in fashion’s biggest night. “Boycott the Met Gala,” “Met Gala, sponsored by those who support ICE,” and “Met Gala, sponsored by labor exploitation” (a reference to Amazon’s working conditions) are some of the slogans pasted across subway stations and city streets.

What was meant to be a festive, philanthropic atmosphere — the Met Gala’s primary purpose is to raise funds for the Anna Wintour Costume Institute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — is becoming political and controversial. It has also become a headache for Anna Wintour, a cultural icon of the Democratic Party. After all, she is the one who gave Michelle Obama her first Vogue cover, advised Hillary Clinton, raised money for the party during the Biden years, and even clashed publicly with Donald Trump.

Now, as she has drawn dangerously closer to the Bezos couple — who, rumor has it, may be interested in buying Condé Nast, Vogue’s parent company — she has also become a target for criticism from the most progressive circles in the United States.

Wintour’s relationship with the Bezos goes back years and has only grown stronger recently. Vogue readers were stunned to see Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos’s wife, appear on an unexpected bridal‑themed cover in June 2025. Thousands of comments on the magazine’s social‑media accounts questioned the logic of putting on the cover someone considered “so un‑Vogue” — not only because of what she represents socially, politically, and culturally, but also because her aesthetic sits far from the publication’s characteristic standards. Few covers have sparked such backlash among its readers.

Wintour, however, turned a deaf ear to the reputational crisis and continued to deepen her ties with the couple. She has been photographed strolling through the streets of Paris with them during Fashion Week, and she named them honorary hosts of the 2026 Met Gala. It is an alliance that may make economic and strategic sense, though its long‑term outcome remains unclear.

Judging by what has happened at The Washington Post since Jeff Bezos bought the paper — mass layoffs, financial turmoil, a radical editorial shift that cost 200,000 subscribers, and a newsroom increasingly aligned with Amazon’s interests — it is not unreasonable to wonder what might become of Vogue if the Bezoses continue to play a starring role in its story. A story in which Anna Wintour will eventually have to decide which side she wants to take.

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