Metropolitan Museum of Art Selects Everyday Fashion as 2027 Met Gala Theme

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that its spring 2027 Costume Institute exhibition will focus on everyday fashion and common materials. The theme for the exhibition and the accompanying Met Gala will be "extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday", the museum confirmed on Thursday.

According to the museum, the upcoming presentation will examine how fashion designers repurpose familiar items such as jeans, T-shirts, and puffer jackets. The show will also feature works created from everyday substances including paper, plastic, and metal, demonstrating how craftsmanship and construction techniques alter ordinary objects. The display will comprise garments from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, complemented by loans and newly acquired pieces.

The new concept replaces a planned retrospective centered on the work of British designer John Galliano. The museum cancelled the Galliano exhibition following opposition from donors and Jewish community leaders over anti-Semitic and racist remarks made by the designer in the past, despite his repeated public apologies. Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Costume Institute, stated that the replacement exhibition had to be created entirely from scratch after the original project was dropped.

The Met Gala takes place traditionally on the first Monday in May as the major benefit event supporting the Costume Institute’s operational budget. Attendees from the entertainment, fashion, and art sectors wear custom attire reflecting the theme of the annual exhibition before the public opening.

Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com