The Met loses a Gala-timed exhibition after John Galliano withdrew his planned 2027 Costume Institute show, the designer said August 31. The retrospective, announced by the museum in July as John Galliano: Horizons and slated to run alongside the 2027 Met Gala, will not proceed "at this time," Galliano wrote in a short statement on August 31. He added, "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."
The withdrawal follows renewed attention to Galliano’s legal history from 2011. A French court found him guilty of antisemitic and anti-Asian hate speech for remarks made to a French couple in February 2011, and for a separate set of antisemitic insults directed at a woman in October 2011. The court imposed fines totaling €6,000, which the reporting converts to $6,962. In 2011 a video circulated showing Galliano saying, "I love Hitler," a clip that appeared in a British tabloid and preceded his dismissal from Dior in March of that year.
Galliano went on to hold positions at Givenchy and Maison Margiela, work that shaped the public interest when the Met revealed plans for a retrospective. After the announcement, pressure grew from donors and public figures, with prominent donor Alice Tisch and New York politician Brad Lander among those calling on the museum to cancel the show. That backlash prompted the decision now on record.
The cancellation removes a marquee event from the Met’s calendar and ends months of preparation for an exhibition tied to one of fashion’s most debated figures. The museum and its donors must now decide how to replace the Gala‑timed slot and reassign resources earmarked for the show. The withdrawal underlines how reputational controversies from more than a decade earlier can still derail major cultural projects.
