The Clooney Met Gala?

The Hollywood Reporter published a story yesterday reported by Merle Ginsberg about the 2027 Met Gala with some curious details. According to Merle’s sources at Condé Nast, Anna Wintour was so bothered by the backlash to the Bozos Bezos Ball earlier this year, “she convened an all-hands Vogue meeting and vowed to dial things down for the 2027 Gala: a tighter guest list, less ostentation, a clearer theme and, with any luck, fewer protesters outside”.

But, as Merle points out, if she had concerns about the controversy from the last Met Gala, signing off on next year’s exhibit focusing on John Galliano isn’t exactly playing it safe, it’s just controversy with a different look. And also, per Merle’s article, even though she is well aware of how much criticism there was over the Bozos’s involvement with the event, Anna was still hoping that they would come back as sponsors for 2027. Which is not happening, apparently they’re not renewing.

So now Anna has two major problems: the opposition to the Costume Institute’s actual exhibit, John Galliano, and finding the money to fund the gala that supports the Costume Institute. On the first front, apparently she and Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s chief curator, have been meeting with members of the Jewish community in New York. You’ll recall, the Costume Institute originally intended to feature John Galliano two years ago before they eventually scrapped it in favour of the Sleeping Beauties exhibit and the Garden of Time theme at the 2024 Met Gala. Evidently they thought three years would be enough time to revive the Galliano exhibit… and so far it looks like they’re moving ahead with it, announcing it so early so as to get people used to the idea.

On the funding issue, Merle reports that Ted Sarandos from Netflix is on her wish list. No fashion houses are mentioned – and that may just be that there are no sources confirming if or which fashion house might be the sponsor in 2027 but more often than not, it’s a fashion house who’s coming in with the money as the presenting sponsor. For example, in 2025, when the theme was Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, Louis Vuitton was the sponsor, with Pharrell as one of the co-chairs. Anna may have a hard time finding a fashion house sponsor though with such a narrowly specific theme focused on one person. Like why would Gucci sponsor the Met Gala about John Galliano when he’s never designed for them? And why would Maison Margiela fund the party when he left the brand two years ago? It was said to be an amicable departure so it’s not about hard feelings but about whether or not continuing to associate with him would undermine his successor, Glenn Martens, since the house is now firmly under his stewardship now.

As for Dior, where John Galliano was creative director at the time of his scandal, this is probably the most obvious choice since he had an epic run there (if they really do move forward with the exhibit there is no doubt that many of Galliano’s Dior designs will be shown at the museum) and was an inspiration to current creative director Jonathan Anderson. Still, it’s a matter of how much smoke they’re comfortable with attracting.

But the other name that came up in Merle Ginsberg’s article was the Clooney’s. Anna allegedly has George and Amal high on her wish list for sponsorship. Sure, they’ve both co-chaired the Met Gala before (Amal most recently in 2018) and she does love fashion but writing the cheque for it is a whole other story. Plus, the Clooneys have been keeping a much lower profile these days. But did you know that he’s making a cameo in the Call My Agent! The Movie releasing on Netflix on September 10?

For now, the Clooneys are where they usually are in the summer – Lake Como. They were seen in matching white a few days ago while out with a group of friends.