But the blunder has touched off many hard questions about Wintour’s, and the Met’s, judgment.

Said Elisha Wiesel, chairman of the Elie Wiesel Foundation: “If praise for Hitler and references to the gas chamber do not disqualify someone, where is the line?”

Growing Concerns

At first, the museum’s leadership team seemed confident that the public would want to see the exhibition, despite Galliano’s past misdeeds. Fifteen years had gone by since he was found guilty by a French court of the hate crime.

After his conviction, Galliano went into rehab and apologized for his remarks against both Jews and Asians. He met with Jewish leaders and studied the history of Judaism under rabbis. Wintour supported him when he was persona non grata, and helped him become the creative director of a prestigious luxury brand, Maison Margiela, where his tenure was widely applauded until his departure in 2024.

As far as the fashion world was concerned, Galliano was back, reputation restored, and the Met had good reason to believe the show celebrating the 65-year-old designer would be a hit: Five of the 10 most-visited exhibitions in modern museum history have been Costume Institute shows, and over the years, Wintour has transformed the Met Gala from just another stuffy benefit into a spectacle akin to the Super Bowl or the Oscars. Since 1999, when she took over the event, it has brought in over $300 million for the Costume Institute, the Met’s fashion wing, including a record $42 million in 2026. Overall, Wintour has raised more than $500 million for the museum.

But even in late July, after The New York Times broke the news of the planned Galliano exhibition, there were early murmurs of opposition. Some of them emanated from members of the nearly 100-person Met board, who had long tolerated Wintour’s imperious manner, from her habit of wearing sunglasses at board meetings to her neglecting to invite many of them to the gala. They had stayed quiet in the past, even as they chafed at the increasingly carnival-like atmosphere she created, from the arrival of the Kardashians at the gala to ever more outrageous clothes on display.

Some prominent Jews, meanwhile, were unsettled by the news, but worried that if they spoke out, they would play into stereotypes.