Well, that was fast.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Monday morning that its planned John Galliano retrospective, John Galliano: Horizons, will no longer move forward. The exhibition was scheduled to open in May 2027 and would have made Galliano only the third living designer to receive a solo Costume Institute exhibition. Now, after weeks of backlash surrounding the designer’s history of antisemitic and racist remarks, the Met and Galliano have decided to pull the plug.
“Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” Met director and CEO Max Hollein said in a statement provided to EBONY. A replacement spring Costume Institute exhibition and details about the 2027 Met Gala will be announced later.
Galliano also addressed the controversy directly, saying he remains “fully accountable” for the pain caused by his past remarks, particularly to Jewish and Asian communities. “I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture,” he said. “It is a continuing responsibility.”
And perhaps that’s the real story here.
Fashion loves a comeback. Give the industry a disgraced genius, an artistic rebirth and a celebrity in one of their archival gowns and suddenly everybody’s memory gets a little fuzzy. Galliano’s comeback has been particularly successful. After being fired from Dior in 2011 following antisemitic and racist outbursts, he returned as creative director of Maison Margiela in 2014 and eventually delivered a 2024 couture collection that had fashion folks acting like they had witnessed the second coming.
But a comeback and a coronation aren’t necessarily the same thing.
The planned exhibition faced mounting criticism from Jewish leaders, donors and members of New York’s cultural community, according to The New York Times. The newspaper reported that some donors threatened to rescind gifts, while New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin called the exhibition “a serious mistake.”
Anna Wintour, who has long supported Galliano, now agrees with the cancellation. “I believe this is the right decision,” the Met trustee said in Monday’s announcement.
Galliano’s influence on fashion isn’t disappearing because an exhibition was canceled. Neither is his past.
Maybe that’s the point. Accountability doesn’t require erasure, but it doesn’t require a Met Gala-sized victory lap either.