Forgiving or forgetting? Why the Met Gala’s choice to honour John Galliano is so controversial

The visionary designer's career retrospective has sparked debate over forgiveness, forgetfulness and fashion's highest honour. The Met Gala is causing controversy almost a full year before its next event will take place. On 31 July, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute announced its spring 2027 exhibition will celebrate the work of legendary British designer John Galliano. Titled ‘John Galliano: Horizons’, the exhibition will offer a retrospective of his decades-spanning career, while the accompanying Met Gala using Galliano as its theme. But the decision immediately received criticism from across the pop culture world. That’s because, influential as the designer’s time at luxury houses Givenchy and Dior were, he is perhaps best known for antisemiticand racist outbursts that led him to be convicted of a hate crime in 2011. Who is John Galliano? Born in Gibraltar, Galliano moved with his family to the UK when he was six and would go on to study at the prestigious Central Saint Martins in 1984. His design bona fides were established before he even entered the professional realm. His graduation collection – Les Incroyables, inspired by the aristocratic hedonism that followed the Reign of Terror – was bought up British department store Browns. With help from then Vogue editor and Met Gala fixture Anna Wintour, Galliano then broke out in Paris in the early 1990s. In 1994, he was appointed head designer of Givenchy, making him the first Briton to lead a major French fashion house. In 1996, LVMH – the firm that owns Givenchy, among other fashion brands – moved Galliano to Dior. From that moment, he ascended like a rocket ship. Galliano is credited with creating the Dior saddle bag, one of the most popular handbags of all time, made famous with the help of the character Carrie Bradshaw from ‘Sex and The City’. By the early 2000s, he had fully inserted himself in pop culture. What happened in 2011? Galliano came crashing back to earth when, shortly before the 2011 autumn/winter Paris Fashion Week, he was caught on video hurling a series of racist and antisemitic marks at a couple at a Paris café. At one point, he was recorded saying: “I love Hitler.” He was fired by Dior and later found guilty of public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity – remarks that the state prosecutor called “pitiful and dreadful”. The court fined him €6,000, rejecting his argument that he was in a fragile emotional state following the death of a close friend. By 2013, however, his image was already being rehabilitated. Wintour helped secure him a temporary residency at Dominican designer Oscar de la Renta’s studio before the autumn 2013 New York Fashion Week. The collaboration earned praise, with critics highlighting Galliano’s signature theatricality in de la Renta’s ready-to-wear collection. In 2014, he was appointed creative director of French house Maison Margiela and held the role until 2024. In March this year, Galliano signed on for a two-year creative partnership with Zara. Looking beyond the Horizons Galliano, now 65, has apologised often for his outburst, claiming he had suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction. Many Jewish leaders have accepted his contrition as genuine, too. Before the ‘Horizons’ exhibition came to be, Wintour and Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton consulted with several Jewish leaders, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Union for Reform Judaism. All signed off on it. “There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,” Wintour said. “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.” But the announcement has nevertheless reignited debate over his redemption arc. Critics have questioned whether it’s appropriate to elevate Galliano to fashion’s pantheon by making him only the third living designer to receive a solo Costume Institute exhibition, after Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017. Especially now, at a time when antisemitism is on the rise in Europe and the US. Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, told Page Six: “As the decision is made, now it’s on the Met and partners, not with token gestures around one exhibit, but with real action against antisemitism”. Author and fashion journalist Dana Thomas also flagged Galliano’s less publicised history of troubling behaviour. In an editorial for the New York Times, she cited everything from his surly trash-talking to the time he was kicked out of the Ritz hotel in London for stripping naked, occupying an elevator and growling at guests who tried to enter it, telling them he was a lion. But the museum has said Galliano’s show won’t be a hagiographic feting of his work. ‘Horizons’ will span more than four decades of work, showcasing more than 200 garments, sketches and archival materials, but one section of the exhibition will be dedicated to his 2011 antisemitic remarks and subsequent return to fashion. In a statement, the museum said: “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 exhibition opens on 9 May 2027, a week after the Met Gala on 3 May.