Don’t let the door hit your chiffon bustle on the way out.
This morning, John Galliano announced he was bowing out of his planned Met Gala exhibition, which would celebrate his historic — and tainted — contributions to the fashion world.
“After much reflection and discussion from those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time.”
The move comes after backlash from members of the Jewish and Asian communities, and the fashion industry at large, who protested the vaunting of John Galliano during a time of heightened antisemitism and anti-Asian sentiment in America.
Just last week, New York City Council speaker Julie Menin wrote an open letter to Met Gala empress Anna Wintour calling the planned celebration “a mistake” that “only serves to fan the flames of hate and sends the message of a normalization of this type of conduct.”
Until 2011, Galliano was Dior’s most celebrated creative director, making iconic red carpet gowns for era-defining beauties like Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett. He helped spark the status bag craze with his 1990s saddle bags, and is the reason your Gen Z daughter still wants to wear a corset top and a slip skirt to school.
But the Spanish-born, British-trained artist crashed out in 2011 with a shocking series of racist rants, recorded by bar patrons on camera phones. In the disturbing videos, Galliano tells a Jewish woman that her family should have been “gassed” while calling her friend a “f***ing Asian bastard.” He was swiftly fired from his post and sent to rehab, then began a long process of attempting to make amends within the Jewish community and with the fashion industry at large.
It didn’t take long. By 2014, Galliano had courted favor with the Anti Defamation League and other influential rabbinical organizations thanks to a lengthy apology tour, and earned a new spot as the head of Maison Martin Margiela. Mega-stars like Zendaya and Kim Kardashian wore his clothes without any real reproach; vintage Dior designs from his Y2K era skyrocketed in resale value.
But rumors of Galliano’s reported Jew hatred continued — just this summer, a woman claimed he was incensed when hearing her speak Hebrew in public, a claim he denied — and when the artist’s Met Gala retrospective was announced last month, designers and patrons expressed both public and private fury.
“I am APPALLED,” the television producer and writer Jill Kargman told The Post last month. “I guess antisemitism is OK now at the highest art museum.” A regular presence at the Met Gala, Kargman told us she would not purchase a ticket for the fundraising event this year.
A New York Times report from Sunday reveals that Kargman wasn’t the only one, with major Metropolitan Museum of Art donors also threatening their support (translation: their much-needed cash infusions) for the museum.
Deepening the wound, the Met Gala was scheduled to happen on Monday, May 3 — the Jewish holiday of Yom HaShoah, which commemorates the millions of innocent Jewish civilians slaughtered during the Holocaust.
A source close to the matter says discussions are still ongoing as to whether the date itself will be moved.
