John Galliano’s Met Retrospective Cancelled After Backlash
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will not move forward with its planned John Galliano retrospective, the designer and museum confirmed this morning.
John Galliano: Horizons was due to open in May 2027 and run until January 2028, with the exhibition also set to form the focus of the 2027 Met Gala. Galliano would have become only the third living designer to receive a solo Costume Institute retrospective, following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017.
Galliano announced the decision himself on his Instagram, saying that after much reflection and discussions with the Met and those involved, he had decided it was best for the exhibition not to take place at this time. He also reiterated his remorse for his past remarks and acknowledged the pain he caused, particularly to Jewish and Asian communities.
The cancellation follows weeks of mounting criticism surrounding the Met’s decision to honour Galliano. What initially prompted mixed reactions within fashion developed into a much wider conversation about whether his creative legacy should be celebrated on this scale given his past.
That criticism intensified over the weekend, with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin publicly calling on the Met to reconsider the exhibition. For an institution that knew Galliano’s history would inevitably form part of the conversation, the speed with which the project unravelled is striking.
Anna Wintour, one of Galliano’s most prominent supporters and a Met trustee, has continued to stand by him. Her support was instrumental in bringing him back into fashion’s fold following his dismissal from Dior in 2011, and she was among those Galliano personally thanked in his statement announcing the cancellation.
There is no questioning Galliano’s influence on fashion. His career, spanning his own label, Givenchy, Dior and Maison Margiela, has produced some of the most memorable collections of the past four decades. But separating that work from the actions that led to his dismissal from Dior was always going to be the central challenge of an exhibition of this magnitude.
Perhaps the bigger question is why the Met appeared unprepared for the level of opposition when Galliano’s past was always going to be central to the conversation surrounding the exhibition.
The Costume Institute will now need a new exhibition for spring 2027, with the Met confirming that details of both the replacement exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala will be announced at a later date.
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