The Met Gala has a history of stepping on the wrong hem.
Fashion’s biggest night has racked up its share of scandals over the years, from controversial themes and divisive honorees to red-carpet political statements and reviled billionaire sponsors.
The latest fiasco — the unprecedented cancellation of the 2027 John Galliano exhibit one month after its announcement, after mounting pressure from Jewish leaders, city officials and Met donors — is just another reminder that the first Monday in May doesn’t always go according to plan.
John Galliano: Horizons (2027)
The Costume Institute announced in July that the British designer would be the subject of its spring 2027 exhibition, making him only the third living designer to receive a solo Met show.
Backlash was immediate. Galliano was fired from Dior in 2011 and found guilty in a French court of “public insults” after videos surfaced of him saying “I love Hitler” and directing antisemitic slurs at patrons in a Paris café. The exhibit had been slated to open May 3, 2027 — Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day — a scheduling choice that drew particular fury from Jewish leaders.
Galliano announced his withdrawal on Aug. 31, writing in a statement that he did “not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute”.
The shock reversal followed weeks of behind-the-scenes lobbying from public officials and Met donors, and has put Anna Wintour, who had personally championed the exhibit, in the hot seat. “People are mortified by how this was handled,” one Condé Nast insider told Page Six.
The Bezos-backed 2026 gala
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos’ record-setting sponsorship of the 2026 “Costume Art” ball crystallized fashion’s growing anxiety about tech money buying its way to the front row. The couple paid at least $10 million to sponsor the gala, Page Six exclusively reported, earning honorary co-chair titles alongside Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour.
The Amazon founder’s involvement drew organized protests around the city, with activists projecting messages including “No red carpet for Trump’s billionaires” onto buildings visible from the couple’s penthouse. One demonstrator even breached red carpet barricades during arrivals before being tackled by police.
Regulars including Bella Hadid, Zendaya, Sarah Jessica Parker and Meryl Streep all sat the night out, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to attend because, a source told Page Six, “it goes against everything he believes in.”
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty (2023)
The museum’s 2023 tribute to the late Karl Lagerfeld — the polarizing designer who spent decades at the helm of Chanel, Fendi and his own label — ran into criticism as soon as it was announced.
Detractors pointed to a long record of inflammatory remarks from Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, including a 2009 comment that “no one wants to see curvy women” and his 2018 dismissal of the #MeToo movement in Numéro.
“Good Place” actress Jameela Jamil called out the theme on Instagram, and the fan-run High Fashion Twitter Met Gala announced it would skip the year in protest. Still, the exhibit went ahead as planned, drawing red-carpet tributes from Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Doja Cat and dozens more. Penélope Cruz, Michaela Coel, Roger Federer and Dua Lipa served as co-chairs.
Kim Kardashian’s Marilyn Monroe moment (2022)
The Skims mogul turned up to the 2022 “In America” gala in Marilyn Monroe’s original “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” gown — a Jean Louis piece valued at over $10 million and untouched by anyone but Monroe since 1962.
To fit into it, Kardashian dropped 16 pounds in three weeks on a regimen of sauna suits, treadmill sessions and cut carbs, comments that were widely condemned as reckless messaging to her millions of young followers.
Photos later circulated online purporting to show damage to the gown, though both Kardashian and the dress’ owner, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, denied the allegations. Still, the debate over whether the reality star should have worn it at all has lingered long after.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” dress (2021)
The New York congresswoman attended her first Met Gala in a white Aurora James gown emblazoned with “Tax the Rich” in red across the back, sparking immediate accusations of hypocrisy from critics on both the left and right.
Ocasio-Cortez defended the move on Instagram, arguing that “the medium is the message” and pointing out that NYC officials are regularly invited to the ball, where tickets reach towards the upper five figures, due to their oversight of the city’s cultural institutions.
The dress dominated coverage for days and made James — the Brother Vellies founder behind the 15 Percent Pledge — one of the night’s most talked-about names.
Scarlett Johansson in Marchesa (2018)
Roughly seven months after the New York Times and the New Yorker published their exposés on Harvey Weinstein, Johansson walked the “Heavenly Bodies”-themed carpet in a burgundy gown by Marchesa — the label co-founded by Weinstein’s estranged wife, Georgina Chapman.
The choice marked the brand’s first major red-carpet appearance since the scandal broke and drew swift accusations of hypocrisy given Johansson’s public support of the Time’s Up movement.
Wintour later defended the moment on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” saying Chapman shouldn’t be blamed for her husband’s behavior.
China: Through the Looking Glass (2015)
The Costume Institute’s “China: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit — with filmmaker Wong Kar Wai as artistic director — was explicitly framed as a study of how Western fashion has misinterpreted Chinese aesthetics.
That nuance didn’t survive the red carpet. Guests turned up in kimonos and hanboks (neither of which are Chinese), dragon motifs, chopstick hair accessories and “China doll” imagery, prompting a wave of think pieces accusing attendees of trafficking in Orientalist stereotypes.
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