In August, in the Sunday edition of Sabah, I wrote about British fashion designer John Galliano – or, more precisely, about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s decision to dedicate its 2027 Costume Institute exhibition to him. I argued that, since Israel’s military operation in Gaza began in 2023, the world’s – and the fashion industry’s – perception of Galliano had gradually begun to change. After watching state violence against the Palestinian people unfold frame by frame for three years, I suggested that global public opinion had come to see a few sentences Galliano uttered one evening as less significant than they once had been. The designer, who had long been absent from the fashion world’s glamorous front rows, was now set to take center stage at one of the industry’s most closely watched events.

The Costume Institute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was set to present its spring 2027 exhibition under the title "John Galliano: Horizons.” Held each year to celebrate the Costume Institute’s latest exhibition, the gala brings fashion together with art, history and popular culture. And next year, Galliano – who had for many years been effectively excommunicated from the fashion world – was set to take center stage at this major event, the most important night in fashion.

The Met Gala, scheduled for May 3, 2027, was preparing to host one of the most debated themes of recent years through a retrospective exhibition dedicated to John Galliano. What made it particularly interesting was that, rather than simply being another new Met Gala theme selected for the year, it signaled the return of one of the most complex stories in fashion history to the public conversation. On the one hand, there was the reality of Galliano, a true artist, having been buried underground for years, losing all his prestige, his career and his resources. On the other, there was the reality of the world forgiving him again and, more importantly, beginning to restore the value he deserved. Then there was the question of whether the Holocaust and the Israeli state’s disproportionate war against Palestine – one that had by then reached the level of genocide – should be treated as separate issues. This was precisely why reactions to the exhibition began appearing in newspapers and magazines around the world following the Met’s announcement.

What was already clear in August, when I wrote those lines, was that the decision had not been made in isolation. It followed discussions among a number of highly influential figures. In my column, I noted that the decision to put Galliano in the spotlight had followed discussions involving the Met’s leadership, Anna Wintour, the Costume Institute’s patron, and a group of influential leaders from New York’s Jewish community. I also wrote that the exhibition was not expected to offer a conventional narrative of downfall and redemption. Instead, it would examine how aesthetic value, ethical responsibility and institutional recognition intersect and influence one another.

Yet, whoever may have intervened in the process, the economic powers involved soon made it clear that they did not stand behind the decision. For an entire month, the fashion world officially became the site of a major debate between competing perspectives. While everyone was still experiencing the excitement surrounding the exhibition announcement, Galliano chose not to remain caught in the middle of the friction between the opposing sides and announced that he was withdrawing from the project.

Following this announcement, a series of statements came from different sides – some supporting Galliano’s decision and others insisting that he should never have been chosen in the first place. Let us admit it: after the initial announcement of the exhibition, patrons of the Met Museum, New York politicians and prominent Jewish leaders had already expressed their opposition to the choice. They voiced their discomfort with the decision to honor a figure known for antisemitic and racist remarks. For those in the fashion world who regard Galliano as a genuine genius, however, the Met honoring him was something that had long been anticipated. The subsequent decision to cancel the project, on the other hand, came as a genuine shock to the fashion world. Anna Wintour’s support for Galliano, as well as her efforts to place him back at the center of the fashion world, thus came crashing down before our very eyes.

It seems, then, that Galliano’s 2010 remarks at a café in Paris – when he said, "I love Hitler,” and stated that Jews would be "gassed to death” – had not been forgotten by Jewish groups. Neither losing his position as creative director at the French fashion house Dior, where he had worked since 1996, nor entering rehabilitation, nor being found guilty of a hate crime by a Paris court was enough to erase those words. Wintour had been gradually trying to bring him back into the mainstream, but in the end, not everyone was willing to accept that return.