The Met Gala plays it safe with new exhibition theme

By Leah Dolan, CNN

Two months after causing public outcry for planning a 2027 Met Gala exhibit centered on John Galliano, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced a new theme: Dressing down.

Next May, “ExtraOrdinary: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday” will explore the artistic craft behind the kind of mundane garments we live our lives in, like jeans and T-shirts. There will also be clothes constructed literally from common materials like paper and plastic, as well as nods to the luxury fashion designers who have embraced or subverted fashions’ timeless staples — such as a leather biker jacket from avant-garde Japanese designer Junya Watanabe, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s puffer coat ball gowns made with Moncler, or the “I can’t believe it’s not denim” Bottega Veneta pieces that first brought Matthieu Blazy acclaim. “The ordinary is never quite as simple as it seems,” The Costume Institute’s lead curator Andrew Bolton said in a press statement.

The new exhibition will feature around 230 pieces of clothing, many of which will be sourced internally within the museum’s current collection. Bolton reportedly told journalists he saw this theme as an extension of the thesis explored in this year’s Met Gala exhibit, Costume Art, which focused on the way in which clothes were worn. Referring to the rescinded Galliano show, Bolton said he “didn’t have a plan B.” “It was really important to come up with an exhibition that was just a masterwork show or something that we could do a little bit more easily,” he continued. “I wanted it to be as challenging and as provocative and as beautiful as a John show would have been.”

According to the New York Times, Anna Wintour was not part of the selection process for the replacement theme.

While an official dress code for the Met Gala’s red carpet is yet to be announced, Bolton said he hoped visitors of the exhibit might choose to wear their own jeans and beloved T-shirts (perhaps unaware it is the de facto choice for most people). But what might fashion’s biggest night of the year look like with a Casual Friday dress code? Maybe something more interesting than the slick, professionally styled circus of the last two decades. After all, the gala initially was once a much more low-key affair.

At the last Met Gala in May, model Bhavitha Mandava caused a stir online after she was outfitted in a pair of Chanel jeans and a half-zip many thought to be far too workaday. Turns out she was just 12 months ahead of her time.

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