Climate protesters gathered outside the Met Gala in New York City on Monday, blocking the arrival of celebrities including Paris Hilton, and chanting, “tax the rich.”
The annual gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art sees dozens of influential celebrities donning elaborate haute couture fashions for one of the biggest red carpet events of the year.
The climate protesters carried banners that read, “The 1% are killing the climate,” and decried the “climate emergency.”
A video shared by Twitter user @FrancesscaCray1 shows one of the climate protesters being arrested by an NYPD officer.
The event was also protested by The Model Alliance, which advocates for workers in the fashion industry, due to the Costume Institutes choice to honor controversial designer Karl Lagerfeld this year. The group held a rally on the steps of the Met to call attention to the late Chanel creative directors “problematic attitude toward women who didnt fit his harmful and outdated standards,” according to founder Sara Ziff.
The group is supporting the Fashion Workers Act in New York, which aims to regulate model management companies to prevent industry abuses including wage theft and sexual exploitation.
