The Amazon takeover of the Met Gala signals an apocalypse for fashion

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Last year Anna Wintour made us believe that she was handing the keys to the Vogue kingdom to journalist Chloe Malle when she stepped away from her role as editor of the magazine, but the real power play was just a click away.

When celebrities arrive for this year’s Met Gala, Vogue’s annual festival of fashion, their host won’t be Malle but honorary chairs, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos.

A look at the queues outside any luxury store, where the aesthetic is more Glassons than Gucci, shows that money can’t buy you taste. But for a reported $US10 million fee ($13.9 million) it has placed the Bezoses at the head table of an event once seen as the pinnacle of creative clothing expression.

On the guest list the newlyweds have positioned themselves alongside fellow co-chairs Wintour, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams, and ahead of committee members such as Lena Dunham, Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat and Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki.

As the Met Gala’s benefactors, Jeff and Lauren are officially in Vogue, altering our understanding of the word. The magazine has........

© The Sydney Morning Herald