Met Gala 2027 Theme Change: John Galliano Withdraws From Met’s Spring 2027 Exhibition, ‘Vogue’ Promises Update on Fashion’s Biggest Night

The Met’s Spring 2027 exhibition focusing on John Galliano has been canceled.

If you did not see the news, earlier this summer, Anna Wintour and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute revealed that next year’s big fashion event would be held in honor of designer John Galliano. The choice sparked immediate controversy.

Why John Galliano’s Met Gala caused controversy

Galliano was the head designer of Dior from 1996 to 2011.

He infamously went viral after being caught on camera making antisemitic comments and lost his job at Dior. He was even convicted of a hate crime in Paris before reportedly going to rehab, getting sober, and going on to become creative director of Maison Margiela in 2014.

He was found guilty at the time of “public insults” based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity after two incidents.

Only Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo have had sole dedications at the Met Gala previously.

John Galliano announced that the exhibit will no longer take place

A statement posted to Instagram confirmed the news. We have included the entire text below.

STATEMENT FROM JOHN GALLIANO

I am profoundly grateful to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and particularly to Max Hollein, Andrew Bolton and Anna Wintour, for the extraordinary honour of proposing an exhibition devoted to my work.

To have my creative journey considered by an institution that I have admired throughout my life moved me more deeply than I can express. I will remain forever grateful for the confidence, care and scholarship that Max. Andrew, Anna and the entire Met team brought to this project.

After much reflection and discussion with all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time.

I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past. particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.

I do not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute. I also recognise and respect that an exhibition honouring my work would be painful for some.

I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have guided, supported and accompanied me throughout these fifteen years of sobriety and recovery from alcoholism and addiction. Your wisdom, patience and humanity have helped me more than I can ever adequately express. I remain profoundly indebted to you for giving me, as you promised, a life better than I could ever have dreamt of.

My gratitude to the Met. Max. Andrew and Anna remains profound and enduring. Their generosity, humanity and belief in the importance of fashion as art, culture and history – as well as their understanding of human fragility and the possibility of growth – will remain with me always.

John Gaillano

Anna Wintour reacted to the Met Gala news as well

“John’s decision to ask the Museum to postpone the exhibition devoted to his work is very courageous and a measure of the man he is. I believe this is the right decision, and both he and the Museum have my full support. His soaring imagination, fed by a lifetime of curiosity and research, is matched by his exceptional craft. Cut, fit, the evocative line of a bias-cut dress, color—he’s a master of it all. Without one or the other, if his technique wasn’t equal to his storytelling talents, he wouldn’t be the premiere couturier of his generation. But he most certainly is. From the staged-on-a-shoestring feat that was his Fall 1994 show at the Sao Schlumberger Hotel Particulier in Paris to his tour de force swansong at Maison Margiela Artisanal for Spring 2024, Galliano gave fashion its most marvelous shows. The way that Christian Dior called Cristobal Balenciaga “the master of us all,” a generation of designers have looked to Galliano as the greatest. His impact reverberates across generations, not least of all with Dior’s current creative director Jonathan Anderson, who calls Galliano one of his heroes,” she told Vogue.

Will the 2027 Met Gala take place?

Vogue announced, “Information on a new Spring Costume Institute exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala will be announced at a later date.”

Via: Just Jared