Are You a Dior or Are You a Bezos?

There are two kinds of people* in this world: Those who spent the weekend in Venice at the wedding of Lauren Sánchez (henceforth Lauren Bezos) and Jeff Bezos, and those who opted to attend Jonathan Anderson’s debut runway show as Big Boy Creative Director at Dior in Paris.

The two events seem to have plenty in common: Each drew a crowd of roughly 200 guests and each was more intimate than expected, while still being packed to the gills with famous people. Both occasions were hotly anticipated and discussed for months beforehand. They were both in Europe, obviously, and the air conditioning was doubtless incredibly appreciated at both affairs.

Beyond that, however, the dueling events this weekend cast quite different shadows. Anderson’s show on June 27 fell squarely in the middle of the Bezoses’ (yes, that’s the correct plural possessive, get used to it) multi-day celebration, so even if a person found themselves on both invite lists, they faced a there can only be one situation. We would say it’s a champagne problem, but the Champagne region is a different part of France, and you also can’t order it with two-day shipping from Prime.

The Bezos nuptials drew a crowd from a diverse pool of the famous: Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Kendall Jenner, a large slice of the “got famous for being hot and wearing stuff” royal family, all attended, as well as Kris’ partner Corey Gamble, meaning that roughly 3 percent of guests were from the reality TV dynasty. (Add to it that Kylie wore a full-length, corseted, basically-white Dilara Findikoglu creation to a wedding where she wasn’t the bride, and, oooh, don’t choke on your popcorn.) A MAGA-adjacent crowd was well represented at the celebration, with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner heading that committee, as were other “oh, it’s a very-very-very-rich-people event, these specific very-very-very-rich people are usually there” suspects, including Bill Gates and Ari Emanuel. There were also some surprises: Sydney Sweeney, what are you doing here? Leonardo DiCaprio was there, with a black ballcap pulled over basically his entire face, as if that’ll stop that bear from coming back for a rematch, as were Tobey Maguire and…Andrew Garfield? Huh. Didn’t call that one. Oprah was there, as the sort of secretary general of the celebrity UN, and Orlando Bloom’s solo presence seems to indicate truth to some rumors.

Five hundred-plus miles away in Paris, Anderson’s inaugural Dior men’s show drew the likes of Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist (co-stars of Challengers, for which Anderson was the costume designer), Joe Alwyn, and K-Pop group TXT. Rihanna and A$AP Rocky and Sabrina Carpenter and Robert Pattinson were there. But the real heavy hitters were the gaggle of fellow designers there to celebrate Anderson’s first post-Loewe chapter, including Donatella Versace, Pierpaolo Piccioli, and Silvia Ventura Fendi. Also in attendance: Several pieces of art on loan from the Louvre. That’s pull.

The difference, in short, is the difference between cool and calculating. One guess which was which.

For Anderson’s Dior show, you can bet that the guest list was built with as much intention as those couture cargo shorts in the show’s opening look, which required 15 meters of cotton drill fabric. With the knowledge that the fashion world was waiting with bated breath to see Anderson’s opening serve in his already historically significant tenure with the house would be, a spot on that curated guest list is significant.

Both Bezoses, however, are all business. The size of their celebration was limited in part by concern over the fragility of Venice—the mayor put out a statement to reassure the world that the event wouldn’t literally sink the city—but they went all-out in scale to make up for it. Surely the couple has close personal friends, people in whom they confide, but is Tobey Maguire one of them? As Leo’s conspicuous “don’t look at me” baseball hat placement proves, attendees knew they were in Venice to witness a historic spectacle. In Paris, the world was watching Anderson, but in Venice, they were watching content creation. It’s akin to buying something with Prime shipping: It’ll get there, and fast, and in whatever quantity you want, but the level of quality is anyone’s guess, and the veracity of reviews is dubious.

Anderson’s show may not have involved a pajama party, and certainly featured fewer gondolas, but in addition to providing a sharp contrast with the Bezos extravaganza, it did give the world those voluminous shorts and a glimpse at the future of the iconic brand, as well as who is in the front row of the future of fashion. Some of the weekend’s sighted stars, like Garfield and Oprah, wouldn’t have been terribly surprising guests at Dior, just as Craig could plausibly have been at the Bezos wedding, but it’s not a terrible starting point for sketching out subcategories on the A-List: The curated cool versus the conspicuous collectible.

It stands to wonder: If Lauren Sánchez Bezos hadn’t been the bride, which would be the more desirable invitation for her? Is she a Bezos who wishes she were a Dior? And where would Jeff fall?

*For the purposes of this article, “two kinds of people” in a world where everyone is invited to one place or the other. We, of course, weren’t invited to either.