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Mamdani skips Met Gala, calls attention to fashion workers

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by Max Rego - 05/04/26 11:03 PM ET

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by Max Rego - 05/04/26 11:03 PM ET

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) may have skipped the Met Gala, but he still highlighted six fashion industry workers on Monday.

“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,” Mamdani told culture magazine i-D.

Mamdani also touted six industry workers on the social platform X: tailor and union organizer Christopher Anderson, Macy’s employee and union organizer Earnestine Gay, tailor Hafeez Raza, former Amazon delivery employees and activists Latrice Johnson and Lamont Hopewell and tailor Sonia Castrejón.

“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,” Mamdani wrote on X. “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 mayor also shared photos of the six workers taken by Kara McCurdy, according to i-D.

Mamdani, who took office in January, confirmed during an April interview with Hell Gate that he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, would not attend Monday’s Met Gala. The annual event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan benefits the museum’s costume institute and other activities.

New York City mayors have attended the event in previous years, including former mayors Eric Adams (D), Bill de Blasio (D) and Michael Bloomberg (I). Spectrum News NY1 shared a video to Instagram of Bloomberg arriving at Monday’s gala.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, are the honorary chairs of this year’s event. That prompted activist group Everybody Hates Elon — a reference to Elon Musk — to call on celebrities to boycott the gala.

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