Given the dress code “Fashion Is Art,” we were prepared to see plenty of references to famous painters, era-defining masterpieces and even a few deep cuts on the 2026 Met Gala red carpet. Among the first guests to trickle in on Monday evening was Lauren Sánchez Bezos — one of the night’s lead sponsors alongside her billionaire husband Jeff Bezos — wearing what, at first glance, is an understated (if not boring) custom navy gown by Schiaparelli. In fact, Sánchez’s gown references John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X,” one of the Met’s most popular paintings and one of the most controversial in its day.
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In 1884, Sargent exhibited his painting of “Madame X,” which depicted the well-known socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, and was quickly met with backlash from his contemporaries. Sargent originally painted “Madame X” with her right dress strap grazing her shoulder, which would have been particularly scandalous at the time. This fallen strap was interpreted as an indictment on her character, condemning her for her perceived sexuality in a time when women’s modesty was of the utmost importance. As both Gautreau and Sargent faced increasing ridicule, the American artist repainted “Madame X” with the sitter’s shoulder strap carefully returned to its intended position.
Sánchez’s interpretation of the evening’s “Fashion Is Art” dress code was a rather literal recreation of Gautreau’s original gown. But what grabbed my attention was the inclusion of the fallen strap from the original painting, rather than the upright strap seen in the on the Met’s walls today.
“The inspiration behind the gown is the story of Sargent’s ‘Madame X,’ and how a small detail, like the fallen jeweled strap, once sparked such strong public reaction,” reads a press release from Schiaparelli. “Daniel Roseberry took the spirit of the gown Sargent painted and made something entirely his own; the silhouette nods to the painting, and the pearl and crystal straps are a quiet reference to the original.”
On its own, bringing “Madame X,” a painting shrouded by its misogynistic past, into the present feels pointed in our country’s current political climate, but when it’s done by a complicit billionaire rubbing elbows with our nation’s wannabe oligarchs, the statement falls completely flat.
Ever since the Met announced that the Bezoses would be funding this year’s fete and given top billing as honorary co-chairs, fierce backlash and calls for a boycott ensued. Anti-Bezos protests sprung up across New York City, with some branding this year’s gala as the “Bezos Ball.” Last week, an activist group called Everyone Hates Elon even left approximately 300 bottles of fake urine inside the Met due to complaints by Amazon workers of having to urinate in bottles.
Perhaps Sánchez intended her reference to emulate “Madame X”‘s quiet strength in the face of ridicule, but any attempt to compare the misogynistic uproar that stained Madame X’s reputation to Sánchez’s lofty situation feels irrevocably hollow.
