The Met’s next fashion exhibition at the Costume Institute will feature British fashion maverick John Galliano.

A Galliano retrospective has been mooted for years, and gained fresh urgency with his triumphant spring 2024 Artisanal collection for Maison Margiela, a theatrical tour de force that proved his unrivaled mastery of couture techniques, his extraordinary imagination — and his unerring grasp of the zeitgeist.

Only two living fashion designers have been given solo monographic retrospectives at the Costume Institute: Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017.

Friday evening The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the “John Galliano: Horizons” exhibition, by issuing a press release. Running from May 9 to Jan. 9 and focusing on “one of the most inventive and influential designers of the past four decades,” the show will be organized into three “movements”: “Bearings,” “Horizons” and “Atlas of Transformation.”

Notably, the retrospective will address the “rupture caused by his antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011,” which led to his dismissal from Christian Dior and his eponymous label, and his conviction by a Paris court for “public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity, or origin.” The exhibition will also highlight his “subsequent treatment for substance addiction and his later public acknowledgment of his actions,” according to The Met.

Exploring the designer’s “full breadth of creative output,” museum visitors will find an assortment of Galliano-designed garments and accessories, as well as some of his sketches, toiles, research books and archival materials. The Costume Institute has the world’s largest holdings of the designer’s work, including examples from his breakout from his 1984 landmark graduation collection at Central Saint Martins in London.

While Galliano wound up his 10-year collaboration with Maison Margiela in December 2025, having delivered thrills, cultural moments and business progression galore, Galliano is to return to the fashion spotlight this fall when he launches his first season collection as part of a two-year partnership with Zara.

A launch event has been scheduled for Sept. 30 during Paris Fashion Week.

A club kid from South London via Gibraltar, Galliano hit the international fashion radar immediately after graduating from Central Saint Martins. With his theatrical flair and inspirations of epic proportions, Galliano immediately became famous for his ultrafeminine gowns, innovative tailoring and a cheeky, streetwise sensibility.

Luxury titan Bernard Arnault tapped him in 1995 to succeed Hubert de Givenchy upon his retirement, moving the designer to Dior a year later. He spent 15 eventful years at the French house, further catapulting its global fame and elevating its image.

He was ousted from Dior and his namesake fashion house in 2011 following racist and antisemitic outbursts at a Paris bar. Oscar de la Renta, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Kate Moss and OTB’s Renzo Rosso were among the industry figures who assisted him in his personal recovery from multiple addictions, and a gradual professional rehabilitation.

Galliano has said Rosso, whose group controls Maison Margiela, gave him the “most precious gift: the opportunity to once again find my creative voice when I had become voiceless.”

The Met relayed another perspective in its release, by suggesting that along with Galliano’s extraordinary creative accomplishments, the exhibition will address “the derogatory conduct that fundamentally altered his career and public reception. In doing so, the exhibition will consider how artistic achievement should be understood alongside ethical accountability.”

The show is being curated by Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Costume Institute, who has consistently featured Galliano’s designs in other shows through the years including “China: Through the Looking Glass” and “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” among others.

— With contributions from Rosemary Feitelberg