The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is honoring the controversial fashion designer John Galliano (65). With the famed Met Gala looming next year, the museum on Central Park in Manhattan announced that an exhibition devoted to his work will open. It is the first major museum retrospective of Galliano’s work — “one of the most inventive and influential designers of the past four decades.”
The gay designer, born in 1960 in Gibraltar, served as chief designer at the fashion houses Givenchy and Dior, as well as at his own label, John Galliano. In 2011, Dior parted ways with Galliano after the Briton, while intoxicated in a Paris bar, insulted several guests with antisemitic remarks.
Galliano would be only the third living designer to be honored by the Met Gala
Galliano was fined on probation and spoke openly about his long-standing drug and alcohol addiction. For several years, the designer has been easing back into work. The scandal would also be part of the exhibition, the Metropolitan Museum said.
In the long arc of Met Gala history, only two living designers had been honored at the time of the event: Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo.
Star-studded spectacle on the first Monday in May
The Met Ball, often described as the “party of the year,” is an annual fundraising event for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum. With the star-studded spectacle, which traditionally takes place on the first Monday in May, a fashion exhibit is opened each year.
The revenues from the “Costume Institute Benefit,” estimated in the multi-millions, fund the institute’s annual budget, which is now named after longtime Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. (dpa/cw)
