John Galliano Is the Subject of the Next Costume Institute Show

Announced today, “John Galliano: Horizons,” the spring 2027 exhibition at the Costume Institute, will examine and exalt the work of John Galliano. In the history of The Met, only two other living designers have been the subject of monographs. The first was Yves Saint Laurent in 1983, organized by Diana Vreeland; the second was Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 2017.

Galliano has been widely considered one of fashion’s greats since his 1984 Central Saint Martins graduation collection Les Incroyables. An exuberant pastiche of turn-of-the-18th century historical dress with his own New Romantic leanings, it was snapped up in its entirety by the British department store Browns. “Horizons,” which was organized by Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute Andrew Bolton, draws extensively from its own considerable holdings, including pieces from that breakout show. The other garments, accessories, sketches, toiles, research books, and archival materials in the exhibition span his years as a scrappy London upstart and enfant terrible, when he divined sartorial magic from the merest scraps; his formative appointment at Givenchy; his phenomenal success and, later, dramatic downfall at Christian Dior; and his genius reinvention of Maison Margiela, in which, as his successor Glenn Martens has said, “he really turned a designer’s brand into a house,” and, with his final, triumphant Artisanal collection for the label, a viral phenomenon.

DREAM CATCHER
Galliano—seen with his Brussels Griffon terriers Coco and Gypsy—worked with the landscape designer Camille Muller on the house’s English-inspired garden, which is punctuated by a small lily pond.Photographed by François Halard, Vogue, December 2021

“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 said in a release. “‘Horizons’ approaches fashion as a form of cartography, mapping not territories but affinities, tensions, and transformations. It traces how images become ideas, ideas become material, and material becomes emotion. Yet a horizon reveals not only what lies before us,” Bolton went on, “but also where we stand. The exhibition therefore considers both how Galliano has remapped the world through fashion and how his conduct, its consequences, and changing cultural values have reshaped our understanding of his work.”

Indeed, despite his creative genius, it wasn’t always assured that Galliano would get the Costume Institute treatment. In 2011, he was arrested and subsequently fired from his creative director role at Christian Dior for making antisemitic remarks at a Paris bar. Cast into creative exile, he spent time in rehabilitation, subsequently reemerging at Maison Margiela, where he rebuilt his reputation, collection by collection.

“There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,” said Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast, Global Editorial Director, Vogue. “His body of work—at Dior, Givenchy, Margiela, his namesake label and more—combines erudition and creativity, darkness and light, the past, the present, the future all smashing together in a brilliant way.” Wintour went on: “He’s a great designer and his career isn’t defined by a moment—something that he will live with for the rest of his life. The exhibition won’t shy away from any of the darkness in John’s past. It’s part of what has shaped him. The show will take in the full arc of his career and grapple with all of it.”

The exhibition will crown Galliano’s very big year. In January, at an auction of “Dior Masterpieces” owned by Mouna Al Ayoub that broke records for a couture sale, a painted silk evening gown from Galliano’s “Clochards” or “Homeless” collection of Spring/Summer 2000 went for €510,000, closely followed by a black taffeta evening gown from the same season that went for €420,000.

“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. But perhaps that influence is just beginning: In September, the master couturier will take his turn as the “people’s designer.” That’s when the first release from his two-year project with the Spanish mass retailer Zara, which he’s dubbed as a “reauthoring” of the mega brand’s archives, will hit stores.

This article was originally published on Vogue.com. 

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