Metropolitan Museum of Art Cancels John Galliano Met Gala Exhibit

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Monday that “John Galliano: Horizons,” its planned fashion show for Spring 2027, is canceled. A theme for next spring’s annual Met Gala fundraiser and a new exhibit subject will be announced at a later date. Galliano and the Museum reached a mutual decision not to proceed with the retrospective, as Museum Director Max Hollein explained, “Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition.”

While Vogue editor and Met Trustee Anna Wintour is a longtime champion of Galliano’s work, his career has included controversies that could be speculated to have contributed to the decision to cancel. Initial publicity statements outlined plans to deal honestly with Galliano’s mixed legacy, but ultimately became inadequate to the ensuing outcry. While his legendary and influential career in haute couture was the impetus for the planned “Horizons” show, Mr. Galliano has, throughout his career, made charged statements that were hurtful and alarming to minority groups including the Jewish and Asian communities. In 2011, he was convicted of hate speech offences in France.

The designer stated, “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 for it,” later adding, “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 recognize and respect that an exhibition honoring my work would be painful for some.”

Public sentiment against the show had been increasing in the month since its July 31st announcement, with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin calling it a “serious mistake.” One longtime member of the Friends of the Costume Institute resigned over the selection of Galliano. In addition, the first Monday in May—the traditional date for the Met Gala—fell on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is on May 3 in 2027.

“John Galliano: Horizons” would have been arguably the second time that the Costume Institute gave a retrospective to a living designer, the first having been devoted to Yves Saint Laurent in 1983. It was also the second time that the Met has considered and dropped an exhibition on Galliano. Multiple sources, including The Cut and The Washington Post, have confirmed that a Galliano show was previously considered for 2024 but was dropped or shelved for further consideration, with the Museum staging the show Sleeping Beauties in 2024. That show was not announced until November of 2023, while the Galliano show was announced far earlier in the planning cycle.

Exhibitions of this magnitude often take years to plan, including loan arrangements, catalogue editing, scholarly work, and a list of museum-specific backups. The story of how the Met reacts—Move up another show? Brainstorm a thematic exhibit from the existing collection?—is likely to be well-controlled from inside, with all the professional pieces of the Museum’s apparatus coming together to produce the appearance of seamlessness.