New 2027 Met Gala theme focuses on everyday clothes

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced a new theme for its 2027 Costume Institute exhibition.

The show will focus on everyday garments and materials rather than the elaborate designs of a single designer.

The original plan for the exhibit centered on British designer John Galliano.

The museum canceled that retrospective in August after an outcry over Galliano's past statements.

The new exhibit is titled extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday.

It will open in spring 2027 and be launched by the Met Gala on May 3.

The museum said the show will explore how designers rework familiar items through craft and concept.

Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Costume Institute, assembled the new plan.

Bolton said he had no backup idea when the Galliano show was scrapped.

The museum had already begun collecting Galliano designs for the original announcement in late July.

Galliano had promised the exhibit would confront his derogatory conduct and public reception.

Bolton described the new concept as a twinkle in his eye while working on last year's show, Costume Art., that previous exhibition led him to consider how people experience clothing through memory and movement. Bolton noted that everyday clothes carry extraordinary amounts of meaning. He cited favorite T-shirts and jeans that are worn until they fall apart. The show will look at how designers turn these familiar things into sources of wonder. The Met Gala serves as a fundraiser for the Costume Institute. Guests tour the exhibition during cocktail hour at the event. The theme influences the dress code, which has not yet been announced. Celebrity hosts for the May 3 gala will also be named at a later date. Julie Menin, the New York City Council Speaker, was a critic of the original Galliano exhibit. She met with museum leaders to voice opposition. The 2027 gala would have fallen on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Menin, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, called the cancellation the correct decision in August. She said the harm and pain caused by the exhibit were unacceptable. Galliano served as creative director of Christian Dior for many years. He was fired after racist and antisemitic comments from 2010 and 2011 went viral. He was convicted in an antisemitism trial in France. Galliano made a comeback in 2014 when he joined Maison Margiela. He remained there for a decade. Galliano said in a statement that he remains fully accountable for the pain caused by his words. He expressed deep sorrow for the hurt caused to the Jewish and Asian communities. Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director, oversees the gala. Wintour is a longtime supporter of Galliano. She called his decision to cancel the exhibit courageous. Wintour said she believes it is the right decision and offers her full support to both Galliano and the museum.