The new theme for next year’s Met Gala exhibition was announced on Thursday, two months after event organizers abandoned an initial idea to honor British designer John Galliano amid backlash over his past anti-Semitic and anti-Asian comments.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which hosts the annual star-studded event often called fashion’s biggest night, said the Replacements exhibition will explore how fashion designers repurpose traditional objects and everyday garments to create new garments.
“From jeans, T-shirts, and down jackets to paper, plastic, and metal, the exhibition will reveal how seemingly humble things inspire joy, surprise, and amazement,” the museum said in a press release Thursday. “The exhibition will explore how craftsmanship, architecture, material experimentation, and conceptual intelligence give these ordinary forms extraordinary possibilities.”
The exhibition, titled “Extraordinary: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday,” is organized by the Costume Institute, which curates the exhibitions and themes for the Met Gala, the institute’s annual fundraiser.
The theme of the show usually determines the attire requirements for the Met Gala, which traditionally takes place on the first Monday in May.
Andrew Bolton, chief curator at the Costume Institute, told The Associated Press this week about the challenges he faced in coming up with new ideas after the cancellation of Galliano’s show.
“To be honest, I don’t have a backup plan,” Bolton said. “No other exhibit has been researched and ready to go.”
Bolton said he had little time to come up with new ideas, relying on flashes of ideas from his last Met Gala exhibit, which explored the relationship between different types of bodies and clothing.
Bolton said the previous exhibition “kind of made me think more about how we experience clothing in our daily lives.” “We have a favorite T-shirt, we have a favorite pair of jeans, and we wear them until they fall apart.”
“Everyday clothing has extraordinary meaning,” he added. “I love the idea of designers taking these familiar things and turning them into these incredible sources of wonder.”
Before changing course, the Costume Institute was already collecting Galliano’s designs for the original show, which was announced in late July.
As controversy ensued, the museum said it would not shy away from confronting the designer’s “derogatory behavior that fundamentally altered his career and public reception,” but an exhibition in his honor was ultimately canceled in August.
At the time, museum director Max Hollein said the institution and Galliano mutually decided not to proceed with the original exhibition.
The influential Galliano served as creative director of Christian Dior for many years. He was fired in 2011 after a series of racist and anti-Semitic comments that went viral. The same year, the designer was convicted in France of anti-Semitic slurs after scolding a couple in a Paris cafe. Galliano blamed the behavior on substance abuse and testified in court that he had no memory of the events.
Galliano made a comeback in 2014 when he was hired by Parisian fashion house Maison Margiela, where he worked for ten years.
If unchanged, the unveiling of the Galliano exhibition will coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day on May 3, 2027.
Anna Wintour, longtime Met Gala chair, Vogue global editorial director and longtime Galliano supporter, supported Hollein and Galliano’s decision to cancel the show.
“John’s decision that an exhibition dedicated to his work should not be held at this time is a very brave decision and a measure of his character,” Wintour said in a statement in August. “I believe it is the right decision, and both he and the museum have my full support.”