Jeans, T-shirts, puffer jackets, paper, plastic and metal will be at the heart of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s spring exhibition in New York in 2027. The exhibition, “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday,” replaces the cancelled exhibition dedicated to British designer John Galliano.
The new exhibition will open on May 9, 2027, at the Costume Institute and will run until January 9, 2028. It will be presented during the traditional Met Gala charity ball, which will take place on May 3, 2027.
The exhibition will bring together objects from the museum’s collection, works on loan and new acquisitions. The focus will be on the way designers reinterpret familiar garments, objects and materials through construction, craftsmanship, material experimentation and unconventional ideas.
Post shared by Fashion Magazine 24 (@fashionmagazine24)
Among the forms examined will be jeans, T-shirts, sweatshirts, leather jackets, trench coats and puffer jackets. A separate section will trace the use of paper, plastic and metal, as well as the incorporation of everyday objects such as cutlery, broken ceramics and buttons into new designs.
“Everyday clothes carry an extraordinary number of meanings. We have a favorite T-shirt, a favorite pair of jeans, and we wear them until they literally fall apart. And those meanings are expressed through wearing them,” said Andrew Bolton, chief curator of the Costume Institute.
Bolton will also curate the new exhibition. According to him, it had to be developed in a short period of time after plans for the exhibition “John Galliano: Horizons” were cancelled.
“To be honest, I didn’t have a Plan B. There was no other exhibition that had already been researched and was ready to be realized,” Bolton said.
He said that the idea for the exhibition on everyday fashion came to him while he was working on the exhibition “The Art of Costume” the previous year. At the time, it remained merely a “brilliant idea,” but after the cancellation of the Galliano project it became the foundation for the new exhibition.
Post shared by Man's World India (@mansworldindia)
The original exhibition was supposed to present John Galliano’s career and open in May 2027. The museum and the designer announced on August 31, 2026, that it would not take place. The decision was made following criticism from donors, city officials and the Jewish community over Galliano’s antisemitic and racist remarks from 2010 and 2011.
Galliano was the creative director of Christian Dior, but was dismissed after his remarks became public. In France, he was convicted in a case involving antisemitic remarks. In 2014, the designer returned to the fashion scene as creative director of the Parisian fashion house Maison Margiela, where he remained for a decade.
The theme of the “extraORDINARY” exhibition will also determine the dress code for the Met Gala. The names of the hosts and details about the attire will be announced at a later date.