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Met Gala Pivots to an ‘extraORDINARY’ Theme Focused on Everyday Fashion After Backlash to Scrapped John Galliano Tribute
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
The Met Gala has replaced its planned John Galliano tribute with a new theme focused on everyday clothing, following public backlash over Galliano’s involvement. Vogue announced “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday” for next spring’s Costume Institute exhibition.
Curator Andrew Bolton said the exhibition will explore how designers elevate familiar clothes such as T-shirts and jeans, and transform materials including paper, aluminium and plastic into wearable art. It opens on 9 May 2027 and runs until 9 January 2028, with the gala scheduled for 3 May; visitors are invited to wear a favourite everyday garment.
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In short
- The Met Gala has chosen an everyday fashion theme.
- The change follows backlash over a planned Galliano tribute.
- The exhibition opens in May 2027.
How this story developed
- 48 minutes ago The Met Gala has replaced its planned tribute to John Galliano with “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday”, an exhibition about the beauty and influence of ordinary clothes.
- 54 minutes ago The Met Gala has replaced its planned John Galliano tribute with a new theme focused on everyday clothing, following public backlash over Galliano’s involvement. Vogue announced “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday” for next spring’s Costume Institute exhibition.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Replacing the tribute recognises that Galliano’s history of antisemitic and racist remarks could make celebrating his work painful for visitors and undermine confidence in the event. A new exhibition can still explore fashion creatively while centring everyday clothing and broadening whose style is treated as worthy of attention.
The case against
A tribute can examine a designer’s influence without endorsing his conduct, and removing it after backlash may be seen as avoiding a difficult but important reckoning with fashion’s history. Supporters of the original plan could argue that thoughtful context and clear condemnation would have allowed the exhibition to address both Galliano’s work and the harm caused by his remarks.
Explained simply
The Met Gala is an annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, held alongside the opening of a fashion exhibition at the museum’s Costume Institute. The institute collects and studies clothing and design, and its exhibitions show how fashion reflects culture and creativity.
Andrew Bolton is the Costume Institute’s curator, responsible for shaping its exhibitions. The new exhibition will look at how designers use familiar clothes and unexpected materials to make fashion, inviting visitors to consider the artistic possibilities of everyday dress.