It’s been rumored for years but has officially become a reality: The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that its Spring 2027 Costume Institute exhibition will spotlight designer John Galliano, marking the first major museum show dedicated to his four-decade career. He’s only the third living designer to receive a solo exhibition following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017.

The exhibition is titled “John Galliano: Horizons,” and will be open May 9, 2027 through Jan. 9, 2028, at Great Hall Gallery in The Condé M. Nast Galleries at The Met Fifth Avenue in New York City. Drawing extensively from The Costume Institute’s holdings — the largest collection of Galliano’s work in the world — the show will span his landmark 1984 Central Saint Martins graduation collection, through to his namesake label and tenures at Givenchy, Christian Dior and Maison Margiela, culminating in his famous Spring 2024 Artisanal collection for the latter.

Alongside Galliano’s creative accomplishments, the exhibition will also address his “antisemitic, racist and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011,” per a press release, which resulted in his dismissal from Christian Dior and his eponymous label, as well as his conviction by a Paris court for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity or origin.

In the years since, Global Editorial Director of Vogue and Met Gala Chairperson Anna Wintour has remained by his side as an advocate for his redemption. In fact, she is quoted by The New York Times saying, “There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,” in an article announcing the 2027 exhibit.

According to the museum, the exhibition is not intended to present “a conventional narrative of disgrace and redemption.” Instead, it will invite visitors to consider “how aesthetic achievement, ethical accountability, and institutional recognition intersect.”

“John Galliano has exerted a profound influence on fashion over the past four decades,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, in a statement. “His work brings historical inquiry, artistic imagination, theatrical expression and technical experimentation into dynamic relation. Drawing upon the depth of The Costume Institute’s scholarship and the breadth of The Met’s collections, ‘John Galliano: Horizons’ will offer an expansive examination of his creative practice while attending closely to the historical, cultural and ethical circumstances through which his work is understood.”

The exhibit will be divided into three sections, organized by Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute: “Bearings,” “Horizons” and “Atlas of Transformation.” Throughout, it will connect his career to historical events, address his misconduct and his treatment for substance addiction, show his sources of creative inspiration and trace his creative process from imagination to material form.

“Every Galliano collection begins as a journey among things separated by time, place or medium: portrait and posture, silhouette and story, memory and material,” Bolton stated.

An illustrated catalogue written by Bolton will accompany the exhibition and will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed internationally by Yale University Press.

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