Amid growing backlash over the Met Gala‘s choice to honor designer John Galliano at the big event next May, Met trustees and board members are “mulling” whether to reschedule the fundraiser away from the previously announced May 3 date to avoid coinciding with the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.
The possibility of postponing the gala for a week has been raised in a New York Times report on the increasing Galliano backlash: The accomplished British fashion designer was convicted of a hate crime by a French court in 2011 for making public antisemitic outbursts, and earlier this month The Times reported that Vogue’s global editorial director and a Met trustee Anna Wintour, Galliano and other Gala organizers had been meeting over the course of the past year with “influential rabbis and Jewish leaders” in New York City “to get their thoughts on the potential issues with next year’s planned fashion extravaganza — a show dedicated to Galliano’s work — and perhaps their blessing for it.”
Now a second Times report notes that concern over the choice of honoree has only become more troublesome since that first article was published a month ago. According to an article by Vanessa Friedman, the Times’ fashion director and chief fashion critic, and Times’ Style writer Jacob Bernstein appearing today on the news site, Met trustees and board members “have been scrambling to do damage control” over the Galliano selection.
“For starters,” Friedman and Bernstein report, “they are mulling whether to move the date of the next Met Gala from its usual slot, the first Monday in May, to the week after. In 2027, Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, will fall on the scheduled party date.”
Met Gala officials, including trustee Anna Wintour, who is a noted champion of Galliano, have not publicly addressed the possibility of a gala date change. Vogue magazine, the de facto official publication of record for the gala, still lists, as of today, May 3 as the gala date.
Today’s Times article details the opposition to Galliano’s selection that has grown among Jewish leaders in recent days. According to the Times, “Donors have contacted Met executives and threatened to rescind gifts to the museum if the exhibition moves forward as planned. They have reached out to Wintour, Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute, and Max Hollein, the museum’s director.”
For example, the paper notes, Julie Menin, the speaker of the City Council, and one of the most senior Jewish officials in city government, called the museum’s decision to highlight Galliano’s career “a serious mistake” in a letter she sent on Thursday to Hollein, Bolton and Wintour.
“Our cultural institutions, particularly those that receive funding from the City of New York, have a responsibility to demonstrate that hatred and bigotry carry consequences,” Menin wrote in the letter, which was shared with The New York Times by a museum official. “Words matter, and whom we choose to elevate is a direct statement of our values and what we are willing to tolerate.”
According to The Times, Menin wasn’t the only newly outspoken critic of the honoree. Arne Glimcher, described by the paper as an “art world titan,” recently sent an email critical of the plan to Hollein and David Breslin, a Met curator, stating, “I don’t think you have considered the cost of this action and its reverberations to come,” adding that he and his wife “are seriously reconsidering other works that have been earmarked from our collection to the Met in our wills.”
And Jill Kargman, a longtime member of the patron group Friends of the Costume Institute, announced she is stepping down from her role due to the Galliano project.
In a statement to the Times yesterday, museum director Hollein said, “The Met has no tolerance for antisemitism, racism or prejudice of any kind. We are in close consultation with Jewish leaders and other stakeholders, and we take the concerns we’ve heard very seriously.” He added that Met leadership “is developing a thoughtful plan for next year’s exhibition and gala that meets the moral and ethical standards set by the museum.”
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I was surprised when Galliano was selected – with his nazi salute published, job dismissal. Poor choice. Especially for the clothing industry.
