The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will devote its spring 2027 exhibition to John Galliano. The show, titled “John Galliano: Horizons,” will set the theme for that year’s Met Gala and will pull together garments, accessories, sketches, toiles, research books, and archival material from across his career.
It is a decision the museum had to know would be argued about.
From a student collection to Dior
Galliano arrived with attention already on him. His 1984 graduation collection at Central Saint Martins, “Les Incroyables,” was bought by the London department store Browns and launched his own label. The collection is now part of fashion’s standard reading list, mostly because of what it proved he could do: take rigidly historical dress, in that case 18th century, and rebuild it as something romantic and slightly unhinged. He did it on a student’s budget, the way most students do it.
After a few unsettled years, Givenchy named him as Hubert de Givenchy’s successor. He held that post a little over a year before Dior hired him in 1996. Dior gave him money and reach, and he spent both. His couture shows became productions in their own right. So did he: the pencil-thin moustache and the enormous hats made him almost as recognisable as the clothes.
That ended in 2011, when video surfaced of Galliano making antisemitic remarks. He lost the Dior job, was convicted of a hate crime by a Paris court, and apologised.
Margiela, then a long quiet
He spent three years out of the industry, meeting with Jewish leaders and going through treatment for alcohol and substance addiction. In 2014 he took over Maison Margiela, where he kept producing work the industry took seriously, most of all the spring 2024 couture collection, which was received as one of the best shows in years. He left Margiela in 2024 and stayed out of view until a Zara collaboration was announced earlier this year.
Only the third living designer
Single-designer shows are not unusual for the Costume Institute. Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Poiret, Cristóbal Balenciaga, and Gianni Versace have all had one. What is unusual is honouring someone still alive: it has happened twice, with Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017.
Which is why the choice lands the way it does. Galliano’s clothes still command a devoted following and serious money, with Dior-era pieces trading above 100,000 euros on the secondhand market. His conviction is also a matter of court record. The exhibition asks visitors to hold both facts at once, and there is no consensus on how that should be done.
According to reports, Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute, along with his team and Galliano, met with rabbis and Jewish community leaders while shaping the exhibition, and the museum has said it intends to present the record accurately. Whether it manages that is a judgement the show’s visitors will make for themselves.
