A Ball Without Billionaires

On Monday, as the fashion industry prepared to celebrate its big night at the Met Gala, workers came together for the inaugural "Ball Without Billionaires." At Gansevoort Plaza in the Meatpacking District, former and current employees of Amazon, as well as Whole Foods and The Washington Post, both of which Jeff Bezos owns, took the place of models to stage a fashion show featuring smaller independent labels.

The performance championed the idea that “Labor is Art,” a play on the Met Gala’s dress code, “Fashion is Art," and models and attendees held signs that decreed “Labor is Community” and “We Are the Culture.” The event, co-organized by the Service Employees International Union, the Strategic Organizing Center, Teamsters International, the Amazon Labor Union, and other labor rights organizations, was hosted by the fashion stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and actress Lisa Ann Walter.

“The Met Gala tells a story about who matters, who gets celebrated,” said April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union. “And we decided to make ourselves the protagonists.” Watch video of the Ball here and read more in Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, Fast Company, and Ethos!