Another year, another Met Gala controversy is coming for your social feeds—except this time, the controversy is kicking off nine calendar months ahead of the event. ICYMI, Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute revealed the theme of the 2027 exhibit is “John Galliano: Horizons” on July 31, which ruffled a few fashionable feathers due to the designer’s problematic past.
Galliano’s recognition by the Costume Institute holds significant weight. Vogue confirmed that the designer is only the third living designer in the Costume Institute’s history to be recognized with a theme, noting that “the first was Yves Saint Laurent in 1983, organized by Diana Vreeland; the second was Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 2017.”
While Galliano’s illustrious careers feature stops across Givenchy, Dior, and Maison Margiela, it is also marred by antisemitic and racist remarks, hate crime convictions, and addiction. Read on to learn more about why Met Gala fans are (rightfully) mad at Galliano being celebrated with a theme—and see how Vogue and the Costume Institute responded to the backlash—below.
Was Galliano arrested for racist remarks?
The designer was arrested in February 2011 for shouting several racist comments about Jewish and Asian people while at La Perle bar in Paris. According to The Guardian, “Geraldine Bloch, 35, said he [Galliano] first asked her to shut up, then criticized her clothes, hair, thighs, eyebrows, and makeup. He made 30 anti-Jewish insults in the space of 45 minutes.” The comments led to his firing from Dior in March 2011.
Not long after the arrest, an October 2010 video resurfaced of Galliano making more racist remarks and saying “I love Hitler” at the same Parisian bar.
What happened during Galliano’s trial?
Galliano went on trial in June 2011 and explained that he couldn’t remember making the racist remarks because of his “triple addiction” to sleeping pills, Valium, and alcohol. The designer was required to pay $23,200 in court fees for the complainants (which comprised three individuals and five anti-racism associations), plus a symbolic $1.40 in damages to each one.
Has Galliano addressed his past racist remarks?
In Kevin Macdonald’s 2024 documentary, High & Low — John Galliano, he reflected on his comments and said that “it was a disgusting thing, foul thing that I did,” and added that the things he said were “just horrific.”
He also claimed that he is not racist: “Seeing yourself like that was the most frightening. I couldn’t recognize that person. I felt horrified. Ashamed. Embarrassed. 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.”
What have Vogue and the Costume Institute said about honoring Galliano?
In a press release, Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute Andrew Bolton said, “Every Galliano collection begins as a journey among things separated by time, place, or medium: portrait and posture, silhouette and story, memory and material. ‘Horizons’ approaches fashion as a form of cartography, mapping not territories but affinities, tensions, and transformations. It traces how images become ideas, ideas become material, and material becomes emotion.”
He continued, “Yet a horizon reveals not only what lies before us but also where we stand. The exhibition therefore considers both how Galliano has remapped the world through fashion and how his conduct, its consequences, and changing cultural values have reshaped our understanding of his work.”
Vogue’s former editor-in-chief Anna Wintour praised Galliano’s contributions to fashion and said, “there is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano.” She added, “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.”
Regarding his controversies, Wintour did note that the Costume Institute will shed light on his past actions. “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,” she explained. “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.”
