The Metropolitan Museum of Art, together with John Galliano, announced this morning that the Spring 2027 exhibition devoted to his four-decade oeuvre will not proceed as planned.
The show—which was to encompass garments, accessories, sketches, toiles, research books, and archival materials stretching across Galliano’s career, from his “Les Incroyables” Central Saint Martins graduate collection of 1984 to his work for the Paris couture houses Givenchy and Dior to his final blockbuster show for Maison Margiela—would have been only the third retrospective of a living designer at the Costume Institute, following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Comme des Garcons’s Rei Kawakubo in 2017.
The July 31, 2026, announcement of the exhibition received mixed reactions. Few designers’ work is as universally admired at Galliano’s, so within the fashion community there was great excitement, however local political and civic leaders raised concerns.
John Galliano stated: “I am profoundly grateful to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and particularly to Max Hollein, Andrew Bolton, and Anna Wintour, for the extraordinary honour of proposing an exhibition devoted to my work. To have my creative journey considered by an institution that I have admired throughout my life moved me more deeply than I can express. I will remain forever grateful for the confidence, care and scholarship that Max, Andrew, Anna and the entire Met team brought to this project.”
He continued, “After much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time. 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. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.”
“I do not want the debate surrounding me to place The Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute,” he went on. “I also recognize and respect that an exhibition honouring my work would be painful for some. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have guided, supported and accompanied me throughout these fifteen years of sobriety and recovery from alcoholism and addiction. Your wisdom, patience and humanity have helped me more than I can ever adequately express. I remain profoundly indebted to you for giving me, as you promised, a life better than I could ever have dreamt of. My gratitude to the Met, Max, Andrew and Anna remains profound and enduring. Their generosity, humanity and belief in the importance of fashion as art, culture and history, as well as their understanding of human fragility and the possibility of growth, will remain with me always.”
Max Hollein, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, said: “Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition.”
In the statement, Anna Wintour said, “John’s decision to ask the Museum to postpone the exhibition devoted to his work is very courageous and a measure of the man he is. I believe this is the right decision, and both he and the Museum have my full support. His soaring imagination, fed by a lifetime of curiosity and research, is matched by his exceptional craft. Cut, fit, the evocative line of a bias-cut dress, color—he’s a master of it all. Without one or the other, if his technique wasn’t equal to his storytelling talents, he wouldn’t be the premiere couturier of his generation. But he most certainly is. From the staged-on-a-shoestring feat that was his Fall 1994 show at the Sao Schlumberger Hotel Particulier in Paris to his tour de force swansong at Maison Margiela Artisanal for Spring 2024, Galliano gave fashion its most marvelous shows. The way that Christian Dior called Cristobal Balenciaga “the master of us all,” a generation of designers have looked to Galliano as the greatest. His impact reverberates across generations, not least of all with Dior’s current creative director Jonathan Anderson, who calls Galliano one of his heroes.”
Information on a new Spring Costume Institute exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala will be announced at a later date.
