The Met Cancels Its John Galliano Costume Institute Show, Which Was to Open the 2027 Met Gala

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has called off its John Galliano exhibition, the spring 2027 Costume Institute show that was meant to launch the next Met Gala. The decision, announced Monday (Aug. 31), came a month after the museum unveiled the show and drew strong objections to honoring a designer with Galliano’s history.

Galliano was fired from Christian Dior after antisemitic and racist remarks from 2010 and 2011 surfaced. In 2011 he was convicted of a hate crime in France, ARTnews reports. He has apologized for the comments and sought counseling, and the Met said it consulted Jewish groups while planning the show. According to NPR, the exhibition, John Galliano: Horizons, would have made him only the third living designer to get a solo Costume Institute show.

The Statements

“Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” Met director and CEO Max Hollein said. Galliano said in the same release: “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 for it.”

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Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton said he recognized “the pain and concern this exhibition has caused.” Anna Wintour, the Met trustee who chairs the gala and has long supported Galliano, called his decision “very courageous and a measure of the man he is.” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, one of the show’s key critics and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said it was “the correct decision, as the harm and pain this was causing was simply unacceptable.”

How It Fell Apart

The cancelation came days after a New York Times report on the criticism, much of it sent by email to curators and Met leadership. ARTnews, citing the Times, says one critic, Pace Gallery founder Arne Glimcher, reportedly threatened to withhold artworks he planned to donate to the museum. The calendar added another problem: the Met Gala is held on the first Monday in May, and in 2027 that is Yom HaShoah, the day of Holocaust remembrance.

Why It Matters

The Costume Institute’s spring show is what launches the Met Gala, which AP calls the most visible event on the fashion calendar, so the choice of subject carries real weight. The Met stressed that the decision was joint, and Galliano’s statement says an exhibition cannot by itself be atonement: “meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture.”

The museum has not named a replacement, but it said more details on the 2027 gala and a new Costume Institute exhibition will come later. In the meantime the current show, Costume Art, stays up through Jan. 10, 2027, as we noted in our August exhibitions guide. For another fashion-meets-art story from the end of the summer, see our Yayoi Kusama obituary, which traces her Louis Vuitton collaborations.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.