Why Is The 2027 Met Gala Exhibition Theme So Controversial?
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3 weeks ago
Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition
It’s arguably the biggest annual fashion gathering in the world, with celebrities from all over the world attending (dressed, of course, to theme) in celebration of New York City‘s beloved art museum. The Met Gala can only be described as spectacular, but it took a lot of planning to make it what it is today. And while it might be a little early to start looking ahead to the 2027 edition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art thinks differently; the cultural venue has already announced the theme of its next spring exhibition, which will look back at the life, career and public disgrace of fashion designer John Galliano. Here’s everything we know so far about the controversial theme.
The Met Gala 2027: Exhibition Theme, Dress Code & Dates
What Is The Exhibition Theme For 2027? (& Why Is It Controversial?)
News just in: the Metropolitan Museum of Art already has a theme for 2027. John Galliano: Horizons will mark the first major museum show to examine the career of the designer, from humble beginnings as a Central Saint Martins graduate and formative collections under his own label, to appointments at major fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior and recent tenure at Maison Margiela.
‘John Galliano has exerted a profound influence on fashion over the past four decades,’ said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO. ‘His work brings historical inquiry, artistic imagination, theatrical expression, and technical experimentation into dynamic relation. Drawing upon the depth of The Costume Institute’s scholarship and the breadth of The Met’s collections, John Galliano: Horizons will offer an expansive examination of his creative practice while attending closely to the historical, cultural, and ethical circumstances through which his work is understood.’
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And context, when it comes to John Galliano, is crucial. Curators of the exhibition promise a faithful retelling of the designer’s life, without glazing over the controversies that have shadowed parts of his career – namely, his antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in his dismissal from both Dior and his eponymous label, as well as his conviction by a Paris court for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity or origin. Instead, the exhibition will look at how such behaviours altered Galliano’s career and public perception, while exploring how artistic achievement should be understood alongside ethical accountability.
‘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. Yet a horizon reveals not only what lies before us, but also where we stand,’ explained Andrew Bolton, exhibition coordinator and Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute. (He is also a leading authority on contemporary fashion and has written extensively on Galliano’s career.) ‘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.’
John Galliano: Horizons will be split into three parts (or ‘movements’). The first, ‘Bearings’, will examine the designer’s career against a timeline of global and personal events – with emphasis on the events of 2010, his treatment for substance addiction and later public statements addressing his actions. The Met has emphasised that it doesn’t want to present a typical disgrace-to-redemption storyline, and will instead look at how these events shaped and reshaped reception to the designer’s work over the years. ‘Horizons’, meanwhile, will delve into the designer’s inspirations over the years, while ‘Atlas of Transformation’ will trace his creative process through research books, sketches, toiles, fittings and finished garments.
Exhibition Details
When: 9 May 2027 – 9 January 2028
Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10028 (Gallery 099)
Alexa Chung at The 2026 Met Gala (c) Dior
What Is The Met Gala?
Established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, the Met Gala is an annual fundraiser held for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. Coinciding with the opening of the museum’s spring exhibition, guests are expected to dress up based on the year’s exhibition theme in a formal and haute couture style – making it one of the most glamorous fashion events on the yearly calendar. Since 1995, the event has been co-chaired by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
When & Where Is The Met Gala?
The Met Gala is held every year in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As per tradition, it is held on the first Monday of May, to mark the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibition – and the next gala falls on 3 May 2027.
Who Attends?
Unlike other charity events, the Met Gala is invitation-only – and there’s usually a waiting list to get a ticket. It’s usually attended by celebrities and personalities spanning the arts, fashion, film, music, sports and high society. Some of the names who attended in 2026, for example, included Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Simone Ashley, Gigi Hadid, Jennie and Cher. The guest list is kept tightly under wraps until the event itself, however, so we won’t know who will step out for sure in 2027 until that first Monday in May.
The Met Gala 2026: Recap
How To Watch The 2026 Met Gala
Missed out on the red carpet the first time around? Not to worry, the Met Gala is well-documented by the event’s official media partner Vogue, who live-streamed the entire occasion. You can catch up on everything you might have missed below:
What Was The 2026 Met Gala Dress Code?
For 2026, attendees of the Met Gala were encouraged to get creative with the theme ‘Fashion Is Art’.
As always, the dress code usually differs from the actual Met Gala theme itself. In 2025, for example, the spring exhibition was themed Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, while the dress code was ‘Tailored For You’. The dress code acts as an extension of the theme, while offering a more open-ended guideline for attendees choosing an outfit. ‘What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,’ Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge at The Costume Institute, told Vogue. ‘It’s the common thread throughout the whole museum, which is really what the initial idea for the exhibition was.’
‘Fashion Is Art’ tied in with the 2026 theme (more on that below) by asking attendees to consider the ways in which designers may use the body as a blank canvas. So, what can we expect from the fashion? Think wearable art, playful design, theatrical statements and plenty of fun to be had on the red carpet.
Sabrina Carpenter at The 2026 Met Gala (c) Dior
What Was The Theme?
As is tradition, the Met Gala theme was dictated by the Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition. On 17 November 2025, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that the upcoming exhibition will be titled Costume Art, and will dive into the intricacies of the clothed body – told through the lens of conversations created between museum artworks and garments from the Costume Institute.
‘This immensely creative and collaborative exhibition will demonstrate the Museum’s innovative and forward-thinking approach to presenting Costume Institute exhibitions, and will highlight The Met’s unique ability to position fashion within the context of more than 5,000 years of art represented in its collection,’ explained Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. He adds that the exhibition – which will run for three months longer than its predecessor – will inaugurate a series of major new gallery spaces that will be named after the late Condé M. Nast. ‘The newly designed, state-of-the-art Condé M. Nast Galleries further reflect The Met’s commitment to displaying and appreciating fashion as an art form, and also to continually investing in gallery improvement projects that will benefit our visitors for generations to come. We are deeply grateful to all of our donors for their remarkable generosity to create these new, grand public galleries.’
Focusing on Western art from prehistory to the present, Costume Art will be organised into a series of thematic body types – some examples include ‘Naked Body’, ‘Classical Body’, ‘Pregnant Body’, ‘Aging Body’, ‘Anatomical Body’ and ‘Mortal Body’ – that illustrate the relationship between clothing and the body. Pairings of fashions and artworks will also reveal how artistic representations of the body are shaped by the garments that clothe them, and how garments, reversely, are shaped by the bodies they clothe.
‘I wanted to focus on the centrality of the dressed body within the Museum, connecting artistic representations of the body with fashion as an embodied artform,’ explained Bolton. ‘Rather than prioritizing fashion’s visuality, which often comes at the expense of the corporeal, Costume Art privileges its materiality and the indivisible connection between our bodies and the clothes we wear. The opening of the new Galleries will mark a pivotal moment for the department, one that acknowledges the critical role that fashion plays not only within art history but also within contemporary culture.’
Simone Ashley at The 2026 Met Gala (c) Stella McCartney
Who Were The Co-Chairs?
Alongside Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast and the Global Editorial Director of Vogue, Anna Wintour, the Met Gala is usually chaired by a group of A-listers who have made their mark on the cultural zeitgeist – and it does not disappoint when it comes to star power. In 2026, the Met Gala was co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams.
Who Was On The Host Committee?
In previous years, Anna Wintour has enlisted one or two people to host the Met Gala. But more recently, the usual format has been replaced by a host committee made up of influential figures across arts, culture, fashion, film, music and sport. In 2026, Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz helped co-chair the 2026 Met Gala Host Committee, alongside a list of additional members, including:
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Doja Cat
- Gwendoline Christie
- Alex Consani
- Misty Copeland
- Elizabeth Debicki
- Lena Dunham
- Paloma Elsesser
- LISA
- Chloe Malle
- Sam Smith
- Teyana Taylor
- Lauren Wasser
- Anna Weyant
- A’ja Wilson
- Yseult
Katy Perry at The 2026 Met Gala (c) Stella McCartney
How To See Costume Art At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
As is tradition, the spring exhibition at the Met open in May of each year, with an extended run through to the following year. The current exhibition, Costume Art, is expected to be on show until 10 January 2027.
When: 10 May 2026 – 10 January 2027
Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10028 (Gallery 099)
