John Galliano and the Met cancel 2027 retrospective after backlash

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will not hold a planned 2027 retrospective of fashion designer John Galliano, the museum and Galliano announced Monday. The exhibition, titled "John Galliano: Horizons," was to open in May 2027 and serve as the theme for that year's Met Gala, but the project collapsed after weeks of criticism over Galliano's 2011 conviction for antisemitic and racist remarks in Paris. Galliano said in an Instagram post that after "much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved," he decided "with great sadness" that the exhibition should not take place.

"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," he wrote, according to E! News. The designer added that he did not want the debate around him to place the museum in a difficult position or distract from the Costume Institute's work. "I also recognize and respect that an exhibition honoring my work would be painful for some," he said.

The cancellation came after the New York Times reported Friday that opposition had grown among Jewish leaders in New York and beyond, and that some donors had threatened to withdraw gifts if the show went forward. New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who described herself as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and the first Jewish speaker of the council, had sent a letter to Met leadership calling the decision to honor Galliano "a mistake." On Monday, Menin wrote on social media that museums must be held to a high standard of inclusiveness and tolerance, and that she was pleased the Met listened to her concerns.

"This decision was personal to me, and the Jewish community and I felt a strong obligation to speak out," she wrote, according to The Guardian. Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said honoring Galliano would have been "misguided" at a time of "crisis levels" of antisemitism. "Even Galliano ultimately recognised what the Met should have done from the start," Greenblatt said, according to the BBC.

"This was the wrong move at the wrong moment. Timing matters." Met director and CEO Max Hollein said in a statement that following thoughtful discussions with Galliano, the two sides decided not to proceed. Anna Wintour, a Met trustee and co-chair of the Met Gala, called Galliano's decision "very courageous and a measure of the man he is" and said both he and the museum have her full support.

The exhibition would have been only the third retrospective of a living designer at the Costume Institute, after Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017. It was to span Galliano's career from his 1984 Central Saint Martins graduate collection to his work at Givenchy, Dior, and Maison Margiela, where he was creative director for a decade until 2024.