Wintour Consulted Rabbis Over Galliano Met Gala Pick
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- The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vogue named John Galliano as the 2027 Met Gala honoree, with the Costume Institute exhibition titled "John Galliano: Horizons."
- Anna Wintour, Galliano, and Met Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton met repeatedly over the past year with influential rabbis and Jewish leaders in New York City to address potential issues with the planned show.
- Galliano was convicted of a hate crime in Paris after a 2011 video surfaced of him making antisemitic insults at a bar; he later apologized, attributing the incident to severe alcoholism and drug addiction.
- Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said Galliano showed "sincerity" in the meetings, "looked right at us and spoke in a clear way, not as if he had memorized talking points."
- Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote that Galliano "has genuinely worked through the issues" and that his efforts to repair the damage "should be applauded."
- Galliano becomes just the third living designer to receive a solo Met exhibition, following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 2017.
Why it matters: The Met spent a year consulting Jewish leaders before announcing Galliano's 2027 honor—a model for how institutions handle reconciliation narratives for disgraced figures, treating rehabilitation as a precondition for celebration. He joins only Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo as living designers with a solo Met show.
