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Alison Herman
TV Critic
aherman2006 See All
Courtesy of Getty With the decision to abandon a planned retrospective on the works of fashion designer John Galliano announced just one month ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its affiliated Costume Institute has bookended an ignominious chapter in its vaunted history. The exhibition, and particularly Galliano’s direct involvement in what might otherwise be an objective assessment of his fraught legacy, was a flawed enterprise from the start. But backing away in such public fashion, and after at least a year of prior preparation, doesn’t negate the poor judgment of major stakeholders like Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, and longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who chairs its annual gala. Instead, the reversal in the wake of an intense pressure campaign only validates a lack of confidence that the exhibit was equipped to present Galliano’s work with candor and nuance.
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