Fashion designer Aurora James, best known for creating Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s headline-making Tax the Rich Met Gala dress, is facing a lawsuit seeking more than $1 million over unpaid bills connected to a lavish Los Angeles fundraising gala.
The legal dispute centers on the 2026 Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala, an event James hosted in February at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The gala was created to raise funds for Black business owners and featured a long list of high-profile guests. Meghan Markle attended, while Tina Knowles, the mother of Beyoncé, was honored during the evening.
The event planners behind the gala, The Gathery, now claim they were left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid costs after producing the celebration.
The Gathery filed a civil lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against James, the Fifteen Percent Pledge and its fiscal sponsor, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation. The company says it was responsible for extensive creative, strategic and production work for the gala and also advanced substantial vendor and production expenses to make sure the event went ahead.
According to the complaint, The Gathery is seeking $1,082,965.28 in damages. That figure includes $777,871.84 that the company says remains unpaid in principal, along with interest, legal fees and other claimed damages.
The dispute reportedly began several months before the glamorous February event. Under the original agreement dated Sept. 6, 2025, The Gathery was supposed to receive $1,534,109.34 through a series of 11 installments. Additional work was later approved through two change orders, increasing the total amount connected to the contract to $1,734,588.11.
The Gathery says the Fifteen Percent Pledge made its first two payments in October 2025, but problems began the following month. Payments were allegedly missed while the event continued to grow and additional expenses were approved.
The complaint claims James personally directed the project and continued encouraging The Gathery to keep working after payment problems had already begun. The company alleges that James approved changes that increased the scope and cost of the gala while also assuring organizers that the outstanding payments would eventually be made.
Three days before the gala, on Feb. 4, James reportedly signed an amendment to the agreement acknowledging that the Fifteen Percent Pledge was in material breach of the contract. The filing says six payments had been missed and another had not been paid in full between December and February.
The Gathery had already worked with the Fifteen Percent Pledge on its 2024 and 2025 fundraising galas, and the lawsuit indicates that those earlier events had not produced the same payment dispute.
The 2026 gala nevertheless went ahead, bringing together a notable group of guests from entertainment, fashion and business. Alongside Meghan Markle and Tina Knowles, the event attracted figures including Emma Grede, Kimora Lee Simmons and stylist Law Roach. Chloe Bailey, Mickalene Thomas and Benjamin Bronfman were also among those photographed at the celebration.
James founded the Fifteen Percent Pledge in June 2020. The nonprofit encourages retailers to dedicate 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned entrepreneurs and creatives, with the broader goal of promoting greater economic opportunity.
James herself became internationally recognizable after Ocasio-Cortez wore her white gown emblazoned with Tax the Rich at the 2021 Met Gala. Her Brother Vellies designs have also been worn by celebrities including Beyoncé, Solange Knowles, Meghan Markle and Nicki Minaj.
The latest lawsuit is not the first financial dispute associated with James’s business history. In 2021, unpaid obligations connected to Cultural Brokerage Agency, the company she formed in 2011 as the parent company of her Brother Vellies fashion brand, were reported in New York.
The company had accumulated tax warrants involving unpaid income taxes withheld from employees, while it also faced legal challenges concerning worker benefits and workers’ compensation insurance.
The current case, however, concerns the unpaid expenses claimed by The Gathery in connection with the 2026 gala. The organization is seeking more than $1 million from James, the Fifteen Percent Pledge and the foundation that served as its fiscal sponsor.
