By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has canceled a planned exhibit honoring British fashion designer John Galliano after backlash over his history of antisemitic and racist statements, according to NPR News.
The show, tied to the museum's famed Costume Institute and its Met Gala tradition, had been in the works as a career retrospective of Galliano's decades of influence on high fashion — from his years at Givenchy and Dior to his later work at Maison Margiela. But critics objected to celebrating a designer whose 2011 anti-Jewish tirade in a Paris bar, caught on video, led to his firing from Dior and a criminal conviction in France.
NPR reported that the backlash over reviving Galliano's public image proved enough for the Met to reverse course and cancel the planned honor. The museum's exhibits routinely shape the theme of its Met Gala, one of fashion's most-watched annual events, making the cancellation a notable reversal for an institution that had appeared ready to rehabilitate Galliano's standing.
Galliano's career has long been a study in contradictions: hailed as one of the most inventive couturiers of his generation, and shadowed since 2011 by remarks he later said came during a period of addiction and personal crisis. He has apologized publicly in the years since.
The Met has not detailed what, if anything, will replace the planned exhibit. NPR's report did not include a statement from Galliano or his representatives.
When the receipts don't hold up to scrutiny, even a museum can change its mind. That's the story here — not rumor, just a reversal on the record.
If I can't source it, you won't read it here.
— Compiled from reporting by NPR News.
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