NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art has named the theme of the 2027 Met Gala, two months after its planned John Galliano exhibition collapsed. The Costume Institute’s spring show will be called extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday, and it will look at how designers turn jeans, T-shirts, puffer coats and even paper, plastic and cutlery into fashion.
The gala itself will be held on Monday, May 3, 2027. The exhibition opens to the public on May 9, 2027, and runs until January 9, 2028, at The Met Fifth Avenue, the museum announced on November 5.
What the theme means for the red carpet
On paper, “the everyday” sounds like a dress code built for denim. The show itself is more ambitious. The Met says it will explore how designers rework familiar garments and ordinary materials through craft, construction and wit, while keeping something of the original object’s history visible.
It is split into two main sections. “Familiar Forms” groups designers’ reinventions of archetypal clothes: jeans, T-shirts, hoodies, biker jackets, trench coats and puffers. Pieces named so far include 2022–23 jeans by Matthieu Blazy for Bottega Veneta, a 1993 flannel shirt by Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis, a 2011–12 biker jacket by Junya Watanabe and a 2022 Loewe ensemble by Jonathan Anderson.
“Common Matter” is built around paper, plastic and metal, along with clothes that incorporate objects such as buttons and broken china. Highlights include a 1992 Comme des Garçons dress by Rei Kawakubo, a 1992–93 Martin Margiela ensemble, a 2003 Helmut Lang jacket, a 1998–99 Issey Miyake look, and a 2027 dress by Glenn Martens for Maison Margiela.
Recycling, upcycling and reuse run through both sections.
The show opens with garments from Jun Takahashi’s autumn/winter 2024–25 Undercover collection, inspired partly by Wim Wenders’s film Perfect Days, and closes with geometric clothing from Kunihiko Morinaga’s Anrealage.
“The ordinary is never quite as simple as it appears,” said Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, who organized the exhibition.
The design studio 1009 is designing the galleries, and the museum says visitors’ own clothes will be part of the display’s visual conversation. The exhibition and gala are sponsored by Instagram, with major funding from Moncler and additional support from Condé Nast. Co-chairs have not yet been announced.
Why the theme changed
The Met had originally planned John Galliano: Horizons for May 2027. On August 31, the museum and the designer jointly said the exhibition would not go ahead, after criticism focused on Galliano’s 2011 conviction in France for antisemitic insults.
In a statement at the time, Galliano said he remained accountable for the pain his past words had caused, particularly to Jewish and Asian communities. Anna Wintour, a Met trustee, called his decision to withdraw “very courageous.”
The new theme has drawn a mixed response online, with some fashion commentators calling it safe. But it also gives designers and celebrities one of the most open briefs the gala has had in years. Anything from a reworked white T-shirt to a gown made of recycled plastic would fit.
The gala is the Costume Institute’s main source of funding each year, paying for its exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and operations.