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The Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Costume Institute Benefit, a.k.a. The Met Gala, is a yearly treat for those who love over-the-top sartorial opulence, steps-draping statement trains and haute couture at the highest level—which makes the recent announcement of the new 2027 gala theme feel a little lackluster. Things are looking ordinary...extra ordinary.
The Met announced today, November 5, that The Costume Institute’s spring 2027 exhibition will be called "extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday." On view from May 9, 2027, through January 9, 2028, the collection will "explore how designers rework familiar garments, everyday objects, and commonplace materials through craft, construction, material experimentation, and conceptual wit," per a press release.
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"From jeans, T-shirts, and puffer coats, to paper, plastic, and metal, the exhibition will examine how design reveals unexpected possibilities within everyday things. It will also consider how wearing, styling, and caring for them shapes their significance over time," says The Met.
As usual, that spring exhibition will directly inform the theme and subsequent looks we see at The Met Gala, which will take place on Monday, May 3, 2027. (The Gala serves as a fundraiser for The Met's Costume Institute and provides the department with its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and operations.)
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"Fashion offers an immediate and compelling way to look at the world," said Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "By bringing together works that begin with the clothes, objects, and materials of daily life, extraORDINARY invites visitors to discover the creativity and ingenuity in things they encounter every day. Combining The Costume Institute's holdings with important loans and new acquisitions, the exhibition reveals the rich relationship between fashion, art, and everyday experience."
Organized by Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, with assistance from Stephanie Kramer and Emily Mushaben, the back-to-basics theme comes on the (expensive) heels of a bit of controversy for The Met. The previously announced 2027 exhibition and gala theme was "John Galliano: Horizons," a career retrospective centered on British designer John Galliano, whose celebrated career has long been shadowed by his antisemitic remarks. That theme was canceled after heavy public backlash on August 31, leaving Met Gala organizers scrambling for a replacement for fashion's biggest night. And that replacement is, apparently, Uniqlo?
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Yes, the planned jeans-and-a-T-shirt affair is a bit of a style letdown for those hoping for the razzle-dazzle glamour of Bob Mackie, the late, great American designer known as the "Sultan of Sequins," whose storied career spanned six decades and included iconic garments for everyone from Cher to Elton John to Taylor Swift. (Mackie died on September 14 at age 87.) Not using the Met Gala to tribute Mackie especially seems like a missed opportunity given the recent loss of another glittering style icon, Dolly Parton, who Mackie frequently and famously dressed for the star's various stage and television appearances. (Who could forget that black-and-gold butterfly gown?)
Alas, the fashion powers that be have made their choice, as bland as it may be. At least we'll feel better about schlubbing it up on the couch in jeans and a hoodie when Rihanna struts down that Met Gala red carpet in the very same outfit.