In the history of the Met Gala, a 78-year-old annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, only two living designers have been honored with the night’s theme: Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo. British fashion designer John Galliano of Dior, Maison Margiela and multiple other fashion houses was announced to be the third this past summer on July 31. Exactly one month later on Aug. 31, Galliano and the Met Institute announced that the exhibit and theme honoring him would be cancelled. At press time, a new theme and exhibit have not yet been announced. 

Galliano would’ve joined the ranks of Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo, who were the themes of the Met Gala in 1983 and 2017 respectively, and thus marked an incredible redemption from his controversies last decade, which resulted in a hate crime conviction in a Parisian court in 2012. Galliano was the creative director of Dior from 1996 to 2012 before an anti-semetic rant in a Parisian bar where he made statements such as “I love Hitler” and explained to bar patrons that their relatives “would’ve been gassed.” Following this episode, he was fired from Dior and fined 6,000 euros, which was the equivalent of $8,400. Galliano, who was suffering from addictions to alcohol, Valium and sleeping pills at the time, attended rehab after his arrest and disappeared from the fashion industry before becoming the creative chief of Maison Margiela in 2015, a role he would keep until 2024. 

Before his downfall and departure from Dior, Galliano had been a force to be reckoned with within the fashion industry. His tenure at the fashion house was described as embracing fantasy by the New York Times and reimagining “The New Look” through a surrealist lens. Throughout his trial, Galliano showed remorse for his misdeeds, stating that “These are not views that I hold or believe in … I see someone who needs help, who's vulnerable. It's the shell of John Galliano. I see someone who's been pushed to the edge,” and that “Antisemitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence.” 

Fifteen years after the incident occurred, including three years spent out of the public eye and a decade at the helm of Maison Margiela, Galliano’s long-time friend Anna Wintour, former editor in chief of Vogue and lead chairperson of the Met Gala announced that the 2027 theme would be “John Galliano: Horizons.”

Before the announcement was made, Galliano, Wintour and Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute, attended a meeting with local Jewish leaders of New York City, whose reactions to the proposed theme were mixed. In an article updated less than a week after Galliano’s departure from the upcoming Met Gala, CNN reported an 8% rise in anti-semitic hate crimes in New York City. However, Jewish leaders consulted spoke of the value “teshuvah,” a Hebrew word meaning repentance, and claimed that Galliano’s apologies had been accepted following a clear effort to make amends in the years since the hate crime was committed. 

When the 2027 theme was announced, it was stated that the night would be a reflection on John Galliano’s work and his life, and that the Met would acknowledge his misdeeds. Anna Wintour stated that “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.” 

This assurance may not have been enough for local leaders and advocates who had also taken issue with the Met Gala’s 2023 theme “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.” This controversial theme was supposed to honor designer Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy after his passing in 2019. Lagerfeld was never convicted of a hate crime, but he was easily just as or more controversial than John Galliano. Lagerfeld was infamous for insensitive comments about women’s bodies, models embracing sexual assault in the workplace, Islam and Judaism. He also once famously claimed to be “fed up” with the #MeToo movement. Karl Lagerfeld was never truly held accountable for his abundance of offensive statements, and despite his past controversies coming to light during his post-mortem Met Gala honors, Lagerfeld’s legacy remains largely intact. 

Galliano may have suffered more for his crime in 2011 than Karl Lagerfeld ever did for his decades-long unchecked abuse of religious minorities, immigrants and women. But Lagerfeld had died years before he was honored by the Met, giving the public time to forget about him and the fashion industry time to be entranced by new designers and new controversies. The Met would have an easier time controlling the narrative around a deceased titan of the fashion industry than one who would preside over his own celebration, the highest honor the Met Gala can bestow. With a living designer like John Galliano, who has taken the steps to improve and apologize but has proven to be controversial in the past and like anyone, has the capacity to cause harm again, the Met runs the risk of damaging their own reputation. 

Following the announcement of the theme change, Anna Wintour stated, “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.” John Galliano is 65 years old. His impact on the fashion industry is so inescapable that he was given the fashion world’s highest honor while alive. When he inevitably passes away, my prediction is that the following Met Gala will be in his honor. Despite Galliano’s sins, he has made real steps to seek the forgiveness of those he has harmed and took his exit gracefully, using it as another opportunity to apologize to the communities he spoke against. 

When a new theme is announced I expect it will be as tame and vague as the biggest night in fashion will allow, in order to avoid more negative attention. Despite the Galliano theme being “postponed”, he will most likely be present through his work which will inevitably be worn at the gala. Galliano is already responsible for iconic Met Gala looks throughout the benefit’s history. These looks include Princess Diana’s only appearance at the Met Gala in 1996, which celebrated the legacy of then recently-deceased designer Christian Dior; Rihanna in 2018, when she was a co-chair of the benefit for the theme “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” and both of Zendaya’s looks at the 2024 Met Gala “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”

Men like John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld truly test the question, “Can art be separated from the artist?” Galliano was convicted of a hate crime. No amount of apologies can truly take his vicious words back. But in 2026, after 15 years of sobriety and remorse, is a Met Gala theme and exhibit simply too high of an honor to give to him? Now that Anna Wintour has implied that a Galliano theme is inevitable, the only aspect to be questioned is whether he will be there to see it while begging the question: what does it take for your achievements to outweigh your worst moments?