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John Galliano and The Metropolitan Museum of Art have canceled a planned retrospective of the fashion designer’s work. The joint decision comes after mounting backlash to the exhibit’s announcement over antisemitic and racist remarks the designer made in 2011. As a result, the theme of next year’s Met Gala will be changed.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Galliano said in part: "I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry […] I do not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute. I also recognise and respect that an exhibition honouring my work would be painful for some.”
I am profoundly grateful to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and particularly to Max Hollein, Andrew Bolton and Anna Wintour, for the extraordinary honour of proposing an exhibition devoted to my work.
To have my creative journey considered by an institution that I have admired throughout my life moved me more deeply than I can express. I will remain forever grateful for the confidence, care and scholarship that Max. Andrew, Anna and the entire Met team brought to this project.
After much reflection and discussion with all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time.
I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past. particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.
I do not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute. I also recognise and respect that an exhibition honouring my work would be painful for some.
I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have guided, supported and accompanied me throughout these fifteen years of sobriety and recovery from alcoholism and addiction. Your wisdom, patience and humanity have helped me more than I can ever adequately express. I remain profoundly indebted to you for giving me, as you promised, a life better than I could ever have dreamt of.
My gratitude to the Met. Max. Andrew and Anna remains profound and enduring. Their generosity, humanity and belief in the importance of fashion as art, culture and history – as well as their understanding of human fragility and the possibility of growth – will remain with me always.
The decision to cancel the show comes just one day after a front page story in The New York Times detailing the critical backlash to the exhibit, which included donors threatening to rescind and withhold gifts to the New York City institution. The Spanish-British designer, who was born in Gibraltar, is of mixed heritage and well known for his long tenure at Dior and more recently at Maison Margiela.
His career came to a halt in 2011 following an incident where Galliano, inebriated, was arrested after making antisemitic and anti-Asian remarks at a bar in Paris. Separately, a video of the designer saying “I love Hitler” was published by tabloids. Shortly after, Galliano was dismissed from his position at Dior and subsequently convicted by a French tribunal for public hate speech. At the time Galliano attributed his behavior to his addiction to alcohol, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers.
The retrospective exhibition was set to include discussion of these remarks. Officials from the Metropolitan Museum of Art had reached out to Jewish community leaders to discuss Galliano’s repentance and the proposed exhibition prior to its public announcement.
Following his conviction, Galliano attended rehab programs and retreated from the public eye for a couple years before taking on the role of creative director at Maison Margiela in 2014, which he held for 10 years. In 2016, speaking to WWD, Galliano said of the period between his conviction and his appointment at Margiela, “I’m still making amends. That’s a daily thing to do as well […] I couldn’t pick up a pencil for four years. The two things just didn’t work. I couldn’t. I hadn’t forgiven myself.”
Galliano would have been only the third living designer to be honored with a retrospective at the Costume Institute, after Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo. Per reporting by The New York Times, a retrospective of Galliano’s work had been considered as early as 2010, but was only put into the works following his universally acclaimed Spring 2024 collection for Margiela.