Aurora James sued over unpaid $1M bill for Fifteen Percent Pledge gala

The fashion designer behind Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” Met Gala dress is facing a seven-figure lawsuit accusing her of stiffing the small business she hired to throw her own star-studded charity gala.

According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, designer Aurora James, 42, is being sued by event organizer The Gathery Inc. over allegations stemming from unpaid bills after it produced the Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala 2026 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles earlier this year.

The February bash boasted an attendee list that included Meghan Markle and Kimora Lee Simmons and was held with the intention of raising money for Black business owners.

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Aurora James and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attend the 2021 Met Gala celebrating In America: A Lexicon of Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Sept. 13, 2021. (Getty Images)

However, a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court by The Gathery alleges James, her nonprofit Fifteen Percent Pledge and its fiscal sponsor, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation (PVF), left the planners with the bill.

The plaintiffs are seeking at least $1,082,965 in damages from the three parties, along with contractually owed interest and additional financial damages.

According to court documents, James’ nonprofit allegedly made two initial deposits toward the $1.5 million bill to The Gathery, which produced the annual fundraiser in both 2024 and 2025 without issue, before ceasing all payments in November 2025.

James “personally directed the project and repeatedly induced TGI to continue performing even after payment defaults had begun,” the suit states.

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Aurora James attends the Altuzarra fashion show during New York Fashion Week: The Shows at the Woolworth Building Sept. 12, 2026, in New York City. (Getty Images)

“James approved change orders expanding the scope and cost of the event, signed the Feb. 4, 2026, amendment admitting breach, and assured TGI that payment would be forthcoming — all while knowing, or recklessly disregarding, that 15PP lacked the ability to pay,” it continued.

James founded the nonprofit organization in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd with a goal of encouraging retailers to dedicate 15% of their storefront’s shelf space to products created by Black-owned businesses.

According to its website, Fifteen Percent Pledge is a self-described “racial equity and economic justice non-profit organization working toward a more equitable economic future.”

“Launched in 2020 by Aurora James, the initiative was born from seeing multiple acts of injustice and police brutality in the United States with a lack of accountability for the systemic issues at play,” its website states.

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Canadian fashion designer Aurora James arrives for the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York May 4, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)

The ongoing lawsuit is not James’ first time allegedly missing payments.

James, who shares a son with Benjamin Bronfman, son of music executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. and actress Sherry Brewer, was reported in 2021 to have run up tax debts through Cultural Brokerage Agency, the parent company of her Brother Vellies fashion brand, including three open state tax warrants from 2018-19 totaling $14,798 in unpaid employee withholding and 15 warrants since 2015, according to the New York Post.

The company has also reportedly faced multiple legal claims alleging it repeatedly failed to pay worker benefits.

The alleged financial hypocrisy by James, an outspoken activist with deep ties to the fashion world, was noted by both legal and political experts.

“These are still allegations that have to be proven in court, but there’s an undeniable irony in an organization dedicated to supporting small businesses being accused of stiffing one for more than $1 million,” former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg told Fox News Digital. 

“If you preach economic fairness, you have to practice it too.”

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore a dress that said “Tax the Rich” to the 2021 Met Gala, a popular sentiment among those on the left.  (Kevin Mazur/MG21/Getty Images For The Met Museum/Vogue)

Kaivon Shroff, a former digital organizer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, also noted the apparent irony in the allegations against James.

“AOC made Aurora James’s ‘Tax the Rich’ dress one of the defining political images of the Met Gala and excess wealth at a time of great economic inequality, so the irony here is impossible to miss,” Shroff told Fox News Digital. 

“James built her public brand around economic justice and supporting Black-owned businesses,” he added, noting that she is being sued by a small business.

“That is exactly the kind of contradiction opponents seize on to argue that the politics are performative.

“Movements built around economic fairness and supporting marginalized businesses are so important, and they depend heavily on credibility and goodwill,” he added. “When the people most visibly associated with those causes are accused of behaving in ways that seem completely at odds with the message, the damage does not stop with the individual. It gives critics an easy way to discredit the cause itself.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to James’ attorney for comment but did not immediately receive a response.