The 2027 Met Gala Drops Galliano for “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday”

The Met Gala has a new theme, and it is about as far from a red-carpet fantasy as the Costume Institute has gone. Vogue and the museum announced Thursday (Nov. 5) that the 2027 exhibition is extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday, replacing the John Galliano show that collapsed under backlash, Billboard reports. The gala is Monday, May 3, and the exhibition runs May 9, 2027, to Jan. 9, 2028.

The Met had named John Galliano: Horizons as the theme in late July, and a harsh public backlash followed over the designer’s history of antisemitic and racist remarks. Rolling Stone points to a 2011 rant in a Paris bar that ended his time at Dior. On Aug. 31 Galliano backed out, writing that “meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition, or a single public gesture,” and the museum said it would not go forward, per ABC.

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Curator Andrew Bolton told Vogue, “I didn’t have a plan B.” He wanted a replacement that “wasn’t a substitute,” he said, one with “some sort of contemporary resonance.” He framed the new show this way:

Everyday clothes carry extraordinary amounts of meaning. We have a favorite T-shirt, we have a favorite pair of jeans, and we wear them until they literally fall apart. And those meanings develop through wearing.

Andrew Bolton, curator in charge, Costume Institute, Rolling Stone

Vogue describes an exhibition “devoted to the undersung beauty and allure of quotidian garments,” among them T-shirts, jeans, raincoats, sweatshirts and puffer jackets, plus humble materials like paper, aluminum and plastic turned into wearable art. Rolling Stone says it will include more than 200 pieces and, citing the New York Times, that close to 40 percent will come from the museum’s archives. Two of them: the Calvin Klein jeans from Brooke Shields’s 1980 ad and Matthieu Blazy’s trompe l’oeil jeans for Bottega Veneta. Vogue’s example image is a white T-shirt gown from Vetements’ spring 2024 collection, and Bolton invited visitors to wear their own favorite T-shirt, jeans or hoodie.

Anna Wintour chairs the gala, per ABC, but there is no word yet on co-chairs or the red-carpet dress code, Rolling Stone notes. It adds that the quick turnaround leaves designers and stylists already planning looks on a short clock. This year’s “Costume Art” gala, which Beyoncé co-chaired, drew a long list of musicians, and Beyoncé’s return was a highlight.

The gala takes place Monday, May 3.