The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the theme of the Costume Institute exhibition and the Met Gala 2027. The exhibition is titled extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday (“Extraordinary: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday”) and will explore how designers reinterpret familiar clothing and ordinary materials.
The exhibition will be organised by Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton together with Stephanie Kramer and Emily Mushaben. According to the organisers, it will show how everyday items are transformed into works of art through unusual construction, craftsmanship, experiments with materials and design solutions.
The exhibition will be divided into two parts. The first, Familiar Forms, will look at the reinterpretation of familiar wardrobe items — jeans, T-shirts, trench coats, puffer jackets and other everyday pieces. The second, Common Matter, will focus on the use of familiar and ephemeral materials, including paper, aluminium and plastic.
The exhibits will include, among others, a Comme des Garçons paper dress from the 1992 collection, as well as works by Maison Margiela and other designers made from found objects and materials.
The exhibition will also feature pieces from the Costume Institute’s collection, new acquisitions and works loaned to the museum.
The Met Gala 2027 will take place on 3 May, and the exhibition will open to visitors on 9 May and run until 9 January 2028.
The 2027 exhibition was originally meant to be dedicated to John Galliano. However, the project was cancelled following criticism over the designer’s past antisemitic remarks. Galliano himself withdrew from the project.
The Met Gala is held annually in New York as a charity evening in support of the Costume Institute and traditionally opens the museum’s new exhibition. The first gala took place in 1948.
