Met Gala 2027 to honor John Galliano as exhibition confronts his 2011 antisemitic remarks and hate-crime conviction

The Met's controversial choice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vogue announced that the 2027 Met Gala on 3 May will celebrate British designer John Galliano, kicking off the exhibition John Galliano: Horizons. The show, running from 9 May 2027 until 9 January 2028, will be a career-spanning retrospective drawing from the Costume Institute's collection, the world's largest holding of Galliano's work. Galliano becomes the third living designer granted a solo exhibition at the Met, after Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 2017.

John Galliano has exerted a profound influence on fashion over the past four decades. His work brings historical inquiry, artistic imagination, theatrical expression, and technical experimentation into dynamic relation. Drawing upon the depth of The Costume Institute's scholarship and the breadth of The Met's collections, John Galliano: Horizons will offer an expansive examination of his creative practice while attending closely to the historical, cultural, and ethical circumstances through which his work is understood.

Galliano's career and influence

Galliano's four-decade career began with his 1984 Central Saint Martins graduation collection. He served as head designer of Dior from 1996 to 2011, a period widely seen as one of the most innovative in the house's history, and later as creative director of Maison Margiela from 2014 to 2024. His designs, known for voluminous skirts, bias-cut gowns, opulent beading and exaggerated silhouettes, draw on film, literature and global histories. The exhibition will feature garments, accessories, sketches, toiles and archival materials, ending with his widely praised Spring/Summer 2024 Margiela Artisanal collection. Galliano has dressed many A-list celebrities, with Nicole Kidman as a frequent muse and Kate Moss, whose 2011 wedding dress he designed.

Confronting the scandal

The show will not shy away from Galliano's 2011 antisemitic rant, captured on video in a Paris bar, which led to his dismissal from Dior and his own label and a Paris court conviction for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity or origin. The Costume Institute said the exhibition "will address the derogatory conduct that fundamentally altered his career and public reception" and "will consider how artistic achievement should be understood alongside ethical accountability." Organizers describe the approach as examining the relationship between artistry and ethics rather than offering a simple narrative of downfall and redemption.

Behind-the-scenes outreach

Anna Wintour, Andrew Bolton and Galliano spent the past year meeting with influential rabbis and Jewish leaders in New York to seek input on the exhibition, according to The New York Times. The gatherings, held several times in recent months and including a closed-door meeting at the Met in May, were designed to gauge reaction and possibly win endorsement. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism in North America, attended one session and said he was struck by Galliano's demeanor.

The word I come back to is 'sincerity.' He was open. He looked right at us and spoke in a clear way, not as if he had memorized talking points.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote in an email to The Times that the ADL had long accepted Galliano's apology and believed he had genuinely worked through the issues that led to the outburst. The outreach comes amid rising antisemitism in New York, with unease heightened after the recent stabbing of two men, one of whom was leaving a Jewish community center in Manhattan, an attack being prosecuted as a hate crime.