When Christian Dior staged his first runway show in 1947, it was the wives of millionaires sitting in the front row at Paris Fashion Week. Nearly 80 years later, men have broken through the silk ceiling, with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos joining his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos beside celebrities Rihanna, Vogue boss Anna Wintour and Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence in the front row for the haute couture debut of Dior’s creative director Jonathan Anderson.
At the Rodin Museum, the entrepreneur’s uniform of puffer vests and polo shirts was traded for a midnight blue collarless shirt, a matching single-breasted suit, black Cuban heel boots with pointed toes and enough beaded bracelets to make Prince Harry jealous.
It was Jeff’s second outfit for the day, having joined wife Lauren in a quick change. He was originally in a black shirt and suit for US designer Daniel Roseberry’s dramatic Schiaparelli show.
Lauren arrived at the Schiaparelli show, wearing a red skirt suit with a plunging jacket from the label, matching with Wintour, before changing into a blue-grey fur-trimmed skirt suit with a plunging jacket.
The sleek looks are part of an ongoing glow-up for the 62-year-old founder of the online behemoth, who married Lauren, 56, in June at a ceremony in Venice that reportedly cost between €40 million and €48 million ($68.7 million-$82.44 million).
Jeff has not only joined fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg in leaving the normcore trappings of baggy chinos and chambray shirts behind, but he is winning the race to the top of the best-dressed lists.
Having attended the ready-to-wear shows at Paris Fashion Week in October, committing to the haute couture season reinforces the couple’s determination to become fashion fixtures. In May, their position will be cemented as leading sponsors of The Met Gala and the accompanying exhibition Costume Art.
The Bezos’ involvement with The Met Gala has drawn criticism on social media, but Wintour is standing by the relationship.
“I think Lauren is going to be a wonderful asset to the museum and to the event,” Wintour told CNN last year. “We’re very grateful for her incredible generosity. And she’s a great lover of costume and obviously of fashion.”
In Paris, Jeff will be left looking at the showrooms of luxury labels, with the menswear season having finished last week, Lauren can start picking outfits straight from the runway.
At Dior, Anderson blended the inspirations and silhouettes of former creative directors John Galliano and Raf Simons with his own whimsical references. Draped floral gowns, knitted dresses mimicking the petals of blooming white roses and extravagantly embroidered bell-shaped strapless dresses, were light years away from the New Look made famous by the label’s founder.
Roseberry swapped flora for fauna at Schiaparelli. There was no sign of the bedazzled thong Teyana Taylor wore with her Schiaparelli gown to collect her Golden Globe Award, with the designer relying on feathered bustiers and scorpion tail dresses to make a killing with billionaires in the salesroom.
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