Gallia-NO

Vogue Editor Anna Wintour DID want to stage the John Galliano retrospective at the Met next week, as The Style Files previously reported. The museum's board wisely said: Not now.

Also in this issue:

• A Very Hilarious Part 2 of my previously unpublished Hedi Slimane interview from 25 years ago

• The Iris Van Herpen exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs broke attendance records

• Introducing Green Notes: sustainability news in the fashion space

• Reminder: The 20 percent discount for The Style Files ends today!

Yesterday, The Cut reported that Anna Wintour did indeed plan to mount a retrospective of fashion designer John Galliano’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, as I wrote in The Style Files last summer, and that Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, the show opening next week, is “a last-minute backup plan.” 

John Galliano and Anna Wintour

As you may recall, Galliano was fired from Dior and his namesake brand in 2011, following a series of anti-Semitic rants at a Paris café. For one, he was arrested by French police. The Costume Institute’s Galliano exhibition, which would be put together by head curator Andrew Bolton, is now on “indefinite pause,” The Cut stated. “The Metropolitan Museum’s leadership feared public backlash. Some members of the museum’s board are said to have stepped in to stop the show, too.”

A wise move, given current tensions due to the Israel-Gaza war, and the Pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia University’s campus 30-some blocks away. 

Can you imagine the mayhem that could have erupted on the Met Gala red carpet if the event hadn’t been outright canceled for security reasons?

If you want to read more on Galliano’s attempt to rehabilitate his image, I have written a lengthy piece in this weekend’s Telegraph. 

Hedi – Part II 

During my rather long and chatty interview with fashion designer Hedi Slimane 25 years ago—a rarity, as it would turn out—we also talked about how Frenchmen dressed at the time. And he had some piquant opinions.

Hedi Slimane