Met Picks 'extraORDINARY' as Safe Replacement for Canceled Galliano Show

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has announced "extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday," a 2027 exhibition and Met Gala theme chosen to replace the canceled John Galliano retrospective that ignited months of controversy.

The new show, announced Thursday, is about "how designers transform familiar garments, materials, and objects, inviting visitors to see them anew," per the museum's description. Its subject matter is, fittingly, plain: the banal and the everyday.

"From jeans, T-shirts, and puffer coats to paper, plastic, and metal, the exhibition will reveal how the seemingly unremarkable can inspire delight, surprise, and wonder," the description reads. "It will also consider how meaning develops through use and care."

What will be on display?

The exhibition will feature between 200 and 230 objects, according to the New York Times, which first reported the news. Roughly a third will come from the Costume Institute's own collection. The rest will consist of loans or donations from fashion brands.

Named highlights include Calvin Klein jeans worn by actress Brooke Shields and trompe l'oeil jeans designed by Matthieu Blazy for Bottega Veneta.

Met director Max Hollein said in a statement that the show "reveals the rich relationship between fashion, art, and everyday experience."

Why did the Met abandon Galliano?

The new theme is a deliberate contrast with the museum's original plan. John Galliano, celebrated for his bold designs, fell from grace in 2011 after making antisemitic and anti-Asian comments at a Paris cafe. Dior fired him as artistic director, and a French court found him guilty of antisemitism.

Galliano later apologized and sought counseling. Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton said he and Anna Wintour — a Met trustee and longtime Galliano supporter — involved members of the Jewish community in planning the exhibition. Critics found the show off-color regardless, especially because the 2027 Met Gala falls on Yom HaShoah, the day of Holocaust remembrance in Israel.

The New York Times reported that donors privately expressed discontent. Pace Gallery founder Arne Glimcher reportedly threatened to rescind a planned bequest of artworks if the Met proceeded. The museum canceled the show as the controversy grew.

What does this change for Anna Wintour?

The Times called the affair a "public relations fiasco for Anna Wintour," who built the Met Gala into a high-profile event and has raised more than $200 million for the Institute as its longtime chair. She had previously defended Galliano as "courageous" in the statement accompanying the cancelation.

Wintour was not quoted — or even mentioned — in the Met's Thursday release for "extraORDINARY." The Times reported she "played no role in the selection" of the new theme.

What is Bolton saying now?

Bolton, the Costume Institute's head, spoke publicly for the first time since the cancelation in the Times article. Scrapping the Galliano show was "disappointing for everyone involved," he said.

"I wanted an exhibition that I felt had something new to say, and that I felt was relevant to different conversations," Bolton said of the replacement. "I committed myself to this really quickly because it brings up ideas of value and consumption and resourcefulness and makes us question what we overlook and what we discard."

He admitted that canceling the gala and show together was perhaps "the most sensible thing" to do, but he chose to build a new exhibition instead.

Notably, the Met held no press conference to announce "extraORDINARY," and the show will not have a catalog — a departure from past Costume Institute exhibitions. The 2027 Met Gala and exhibition open in May, and the muted rollout suggests the museum wants this chapter to stay quiet.