The Met Gala 2027 theme has officially been unveiled — and it’s already generating controversy. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute announced on July 31 that its spring 2027 exhibition will be John Galliano: Horizons, a retrospective of British designer John Galliano’s decades-spanning career.
The announcement quickly sparked criticism online, with some questioning the decision to spotlight a designer whose career was derailed after he was convicted over antisemitic and racist remarks on fashion’s biggest night.
Galliano launched his eponymous brand in 1984 before being appointed head designer at Givenchy in 1995. He then became creative director at Christian Dior, where he remained from 1996 to 2011, and introduced several now-iconic designs, including the Dior Saddle Bag. From 2014 to 2024, he served as creative director for Maison Margiela. Galliano signed a two-year creative partnership with Zara in March and is set to launch his first collection in September.
According to a press release from the Costume Institute, for which the Met Gala is a fundraiser, the exhibition will be divided into three “movements” — “Bearings,” “Horizons” and “Atlas of Transformation” — and will “examine the full breadth of his creative output. Comprising garments, accessories, sketches, toiles, research books, and archival materials, the exhibition will reveal how Galliano brings places, histories, artistic traditions, narratives, and identities into unexpected relation and transforms these encounters into imaginative garments.”
“John Galliano has exerted a profound influence on fashion over the past four decades,” Max Hollein, the Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, said. “His work brings historical inquiry, artistic imagination, theatrical expression, and technical experimentation into dynamic relation. … John Galliano: Horizons will offer an expansive examination of his creative practice while attending closely to the historical, cultural, and ethical circumstances through which his work is understood.”
Zendaya attends the 2024 Met Gala.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
The 65-year-old designer remains very much in the zeitgeist, and his vintage looks have graced some of the world’s most coveted red carpets. Who could forget when Zendaya stepped out in not one, but two Galliano gowns at the 2024 Met Gala? (She made her grand entrance in a custom green-and-blue-striped dress by Maison Margiela Artisanal by John Galliano, followed by a black vintage couture corset gown from Galliano’s Givenchy era.)
An illustrious career marred by controversy
John Galliano with Naomi Campbell and Shalom Harlow during his inaugural spring/summer 1997 haute couture collection for Christian Dior in Paris.
(Remy de la Mauviniere/AP)
Despite being considered one of fashion’s most influential designers, Galliano has a history of making antisemitic and racist remarks.
Galliano was found guilty by a Paris court of “public insults” based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity following two incidents at La Perle bar in the city: one involving a woman in October 2010 and another involving a couple in February 2011. He was given a suspended fine equivalent to $8,500 at the time. Around the same time, a video surfaced in which Galliano declared his admiration for Hitler.
The designer was fired from Christian Dior following the conviction and ensuing controversy.
Reflecting on his actions in the 2024 documentary, High & Low: John Galliano, which includes footage of the verbal abuse, Galliano said: “It was a disgusting thing, foul thing that I did. It was just horrific.”
He added, “I can say I’m not racist, but every day you actually learn that all of us are a bit. But we just need to unlearn it and like immigrants. I am one. I was one.”
Backed by Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s chief content officer, Vogue’s global editorial director and the lead chairperson of the Met Gala, has reiterated her support for Galliano as the subject of next year’s spring exhibition.
“There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,” Wintour said, according to Vogue. “His body of work — at Dior, Givenchy, Margiela, his namesake label and more — combines erudition and creativity, darkness and light, the past, the present, the future all smashing together in a brilliant way.”
Anna Wintour and John Galliano in 2026.
(Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images)
Wintour continued, “He’s a great designer and his career isn’t defined by a moment — something that he will live with for the rest of his life. The exhibition won’t shy away from any of the darkness in John’s past. It’s part of what has shaped him. The show will take in the full arc of his career and grapple with all of it.”
Addressing Galliano’s past
The exhibition itself will not shy away from Galliano’s controversial past. In fact, the Costume Institute plans to address it explicitly.
“Alongside Galliano’s extraordinary creative accomplishments, the exhibition will address the derogatory conduct that fundamentally altered his career and public reception. In doing so, the exhibition will consider how artistic achievement should be understood alongside ethical accountability,” the Costume Institute said in a press release.
John Galliano: Horizons will “directly address the rupture caused by his antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in his dismissal from Christian Dior and his eponymous label and his conviction by a Paris court for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity, or origin. It will also consider his subsequent treatment for substance addiction and his later public acknowledgment of his actions.”