I just started watching new episodes of “The Gilded Age.” I can’t tell you anything about it yet, but you know the cast of characters.
Mr. Russell is still locked in battle with the Vanderbilt family over trains. It’s 1886 on the show.
But back here in 2026, the Vanderbilts have not gone away.
A month ago, during Fashion Week, some of the family reappeared at Grand Central Station in the form of holograms.
This was thanks to much descended relative Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and partner Michaela Seewald. Costin, Founder and CEO of the House of Vanderbilt and Co-Founder of SohoMuse, and Michaela Seewald, Founder and CEO of V24 Media. You can imagine Bertha Russell throwing them a party at her mansion immediately.
In the past, Consuelo has used Grand Central — sort of her ancestral home — to promote her fashion line. But this time, in a scene out of the sitcom, “Ghosts” — she brought along the family that gave her her name.
Use Aexa Technhology, modern day Consuelo introduced Cornelius Vanderbilt, Alva Vanderbilt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and even her forerunner, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan to a crowd of fashionistas. Former “Access Hollywood” host Mario Lopez was the emcee.
Rather than treating heritage simply as nostalgia, the moment underlined one of the themes behind the evening: using an extraordinary American legacy as a platform for what comes next.
When I heard this, I was watching “The Gilded Age” trying to imagine how the Russells and Van Rijns of the show would react to see themselves in 2026. For one thing, they were very well preserved! They’d probably have been thrilled to meet V&S’s international designers including Lorena Saravia of Mexico, Stockholm-based Dustin Glickman of DSTN and Paris couturier Nabil Hayari of Hayari Paris.
You’ve got to see this, it’s the future — and the past:
