Met Gala could be rescheduled amid growing row with Jewish community over tribute to British designer John Galliano 15 years on from his antisemitic rant

Next year's Met Gala in New York could be rescheduled in a row over its decision to honour British fashion designer John Galliano – 15 years on from him making an antisemitic tirade.

The fashion fundraiser is due to be held on May 3 which is also Yom HaShoah, the Jewish day of Holocaust remembrance.

Religious leaders are said to be furious over a planned tribute to Galliano, 65, at the gala. Patrons have reportedly threatened to rescind gifts.

His career crashed in 2011 after footage emerged of his anti-Semitic rant at a Paris cafe, saying: 'I love Hitler, he is wonderful.' 

He spent years making amends, apologising and working with Jewish figures, and in 2014 returned to the fashion world with Maison Margiela.

The gala's chairman Anna Wintour defended honouring him, saying his career should not be defined by a single moment.

The theme of next year's Met Gala is John Galliano: Horizons, a tribute to the scandalous and pioneering fashion designer.

Galliano catapulted to stardom as a dazzling 1990s wunderkind at Givenchy and Dior, championed by Vogue editor Anna.

His career went up in flames after he was filmed in December 2010 drunkenly ranting at two women he mistakenly believed were Jewish that 'I love Hitler' and that their 'forefathers would be f***ing gassed and f***ing dead.'

He was gradually able to navigate a return to the spotlight after his longtime close friend Kate Moss enlisted him to design her wedding dress.

A documentary on his turbulent life, High & Low, was released in 2023, intensifying the renewed public interest in him as a sacred monster of the fashion industry.

Galliano is the third living designer to have an entire Met Gala based on his work, after Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo in 2017.

The new exhibition is being assembled by Andrew Bolton, the curator who achieved notoriety for the 2011 Met Gala honoring Galliano's competitor Alexander McQueen, who had hanged himself the previous year on the eve of his mother's funeral.

'There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,' said Wintour in her statement announcing next year's theme.

'His body of work - at Dior, Givenchy, Margiela, his namesake label and more - combines erudition and creativity, darkness and light, the past, the present, the future all smashing together in a brilliant way,' she added.

'He’s a great designer and his career isn’t defined by a moment - something that he will live with for the rest of his life,' said Wintour. 'The exhibition won’t shy away from any of the darkness in John’s past. It’s part of what has shaped him. The show will take in the full arc of his career and grapple with all of it.'

Born on Gibraltar and raised in England, Galliano began his career in the 1980s and secured the vigorous support of both Wintour and her adjutant Andre Leon Talley.

The first turning point of his professional life was the year 1995, when he released his iconic Pin-Up collection and was hired as chief designer at Givenchy.

His career proceeded from strength to strength as he moved to Dior and plunged into a whirlwind of activity that saw him churn out a staggering 32 shows a year.