Met Costume Institute announces new spring 2027 exhibition theme after Galliano cancellation

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced a new theme for the Costume Institute’s spring 2027 exhibition. Following the cancellation of what would have been the first retrospective entirely dedicated to designer John Galliano, the exhibition will now “explore how designers transform familiar garments, materials, and objects, inviting visitors to see them anew,” the New York-based museum announced today.

Titled “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday,” the exhibition will run from May 9, 2027, to January 9, 2028. According to the press release, it will feature works from The Costume Institute’s collection, along with key loans and new acquisitions. Thematically, the exhibition will examine how craft, construction, material experimentation, and conceptual wit give these ordinary forms extraordinary possibilities.

The exhibition takes place instead of what was meant to be “John Galliano: Horizons,” which was originally scheduled for the same dates and was to launch with the May 2027 Met Gala. That show was canceled after backlash at the end of August. After it was announced in July, the retrospective was criticized because of Galliano’s extensive list of controversies, which includes antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian remarks. The designer said he remains “fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities.”

Whether the new exhibition title will also serve as the theme of the next Met Gala, as was planned for Galliano, has yet to be announced.