Strutting down the catwalk in a Cindy Castro frock, 37-year-old Amazon worker Samari Jomar Mercado looked like an ethereal punk-rock fairy: sleeve tattoos, lace bag on her wrist and a white ribbon billowing from her nape like a flag. After a dramatic pivot and pit pose, she paused to salute her rapturous crowd.

“For years she worked 10 hours a day, six days a week … lifting heavy items at a fast pace,” emcee Lisa Ann Walter announced as Mercado sauntered by. “She circulated a petition among her co-workers and filed an OSHA complaint about air quality … and is here today to show others that you don’t have to be afraid to speak up.”

At the May 4, 2026, fashion show in New York’s Meatpacking District, “Ball Without Billionaires,” the models were employees from Amazon, Whole Foods and The Washington Post protesting the Met Gala that was set to take place 5 miles away. The star-studded soiree was co-chaired by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos.

“So let those billionaires have their Met Party,” scoffed co-host Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. “We’re going to do something way more fabulous down here!”

As I watched reel after reel of the Ball Without Billionaires spill from my Instagram feed, it was clear that the downtown labor rally worked precisely because the runway models really – to wield the term made mainstream by drag queen RuPaul – “werked.”

The word has its origins in queer ballroom parlance. According to media scholar madison moore, it refers to “a type of aesthetic labor … seen on the body [that] highlights the effort that goes into making memorable aesthetic moments happen.”

In other words, the poise, verve and bravado displayed by the models were part of the activism that was on display – not merely a front for a larger cause.

“[G]reat style is never simply style for style’s sake,” writes moore in “Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric.” “It’s also a form of protest, a revolt against the forms and systems that oppress and torture us all every day.”

In........

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