Met Gala Scraps John Galliano-Focused Theme Amid Backlash
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its new theme for the 2027 Met Gala after scrapping its originally planned exhibition around British designer John Galliano.
The new theme for the gala and the Costume Institute’s spring exhibit revolves around jeans and T-shirts and is called “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday,” according to a Nov. 5 news release.
The exhibit will be “devoted to the undersung beauty and allure of quotidian garments—think the aforementioned t-shirts and jeans, plus raincoats, sweatshirts, puffer jackets, and more,” according to an announcement from Vogue.
The gala will explore how designers have reinvented everyday wear for the runway and used materials like paper, aluminum and plastic, “inviting visitors to see them anew.”
The 2027 Met Gala is being organized by curator in charge Andrew Bolton, who previously said he supported the decision not to go forward with the Galliano theme.
“It was really important to come up with an exhibition that wasn’t just a masterwork show or something that we could do a little bit more easily,” Bolton told Vogue. “That was really important to me: to come up with an idea that wasn’t a substitute. And it had to have some sort of contemporary resonance.”
The new theme comes just over two months after the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it was abandoning its planned theme around Galliano’s work, titled “John Galliano: Horizons.”
The theme faced a wave of criticism related to anti-Semitic and racist comments Galliano made in 2010 and 2011, some of which were captured on video. He was castigated for making comments about Jewish and Asian people on two separate occasions at the same Paris bar. He was fired as Dior’s creative director in the aftermath of the comments.
He said in court his remarks were made due todrug and alcohol addiction. Galliano has said that he is now sober.
Bolton issued a statement after the Met Gala scrapped the idea of a Galliano-themed event.
“I believe deeply in the responsibility of museums to examine difficult histories with rigor, candor, and care,” Bolton said.
“I also recognize the pain and concern this exhibition has caused,” he added. “After extensive discussion, I support the decision not to proceed. I remain deeply grateful to my colleagues and to the advisors, lenders, collaborators, and community leaders who contributed their knowledge, trust, and perspectives to the project.”
