Met Museum swaps Galliano show for exhibit on everyday clothes
The Costume Institute will focus on common materials like denim and plastic for the 2027 Met Gala, following the sudden cancellation of the designer's retrospective.
By Fatima Saleh ·
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will center its next spring exhibition on common garments and materials rather than a single designer.
The show, titled “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday,” replaces a planned retrospective on John Galliano. The original exhibit was canceled in August after intense pressure from donors, city officials, and Jewish community leaders. The new theme will be unveiled at the Met Gala, which is scheduled for May 3, 2027.
Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Costume Institute, assembled the new concept from scratch. He said he had no backup plan when the Galliano show was dropped. The museum had already begun collecting Galliano designs for the exhibition that was announced in late July. Bolton stated that the new idea had been developing while he worked on the previous year's show, “Costume Art.” He noted that the earlier exhibition influenced his view on how people experience clothing through memory and movement.
The museum describes the new exhibit as an exploration of how designers rework familiar items. It will use the museum's own collection, along with loans and new acquisitions. Bolton said everyday clothes carry deep meaning for many people. He cited examples like a favorite T-shirt or a pair of worn-out jeans. He added that designers turn these familiar things into sources of wonder through craft and conceptual wit.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin was a vocal critic of the original Galliano plan. She met with museum leaders multiple times to voice her opposition. Menin, whose father survived the Holocaust, said the cancellation was the correct decision. She noted that the 2027 gala date originally fell on Holocaust Remembrance Day. She called the pain caused by the planned show unacceptable.
Galliano, who served as creative director for Christian Dior, was fired in 2011 after antisemitic and racist comments from 2010 and 2011 went viral. He was later convicted in a French trial related to those remarks. He returned to the industry in 2014 when Maison Margiela hired him. He remained at that fashion house for ten years. When the exhibit was canceled, he issued a statement accepting full accountability for the pain his words caused to Jewish and Asian communities.
Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue, oversees the Met Gala and has long supported Galliano. She called his decision to cancel the show courageous. Wintour said she believed it was the right decision and that she supported both the designer and the museum. The museum has not yet announced the dress code or the celebrity hosts for the 2027 event.
