Is Wintour still en vogue? Met navigates rough seas as Galliano retrospective sinks into 'Horizons'

François Picard is pleased to welcome Dana Thomas, author of Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, and the New York Times bestseller Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. The fiery controversy over the Met's now-cancelled John Galliano retrospective challenges the timeless debate over whether art can be separated from the artist. Our guest argues that the key issue is institutional power. From her perspective, Galliano’s stature as an artist and fashion designer is never in dispute. All the while, his character has been once again very publicly called into question. A retrospective at the Met does more than examine an artists legacy: it confers prestige, historical legitimacy and, particularly when its living subject can participate in celebration of his life and legacy. Against the backdrop of renewed concern over past xenophobic and antisemitic tirades, she argues that such an exhibition cannot be treated as culturally neutral. She also turns toward Anna Wintour and the concentration of influence surrounding the Met Gala. Wintour’s decades-long friendship with Galliano, she suggests, illuminates a tension between private cultural influence and public institutional responsibility. What might be possible within the comparatively controlled world of a prestigious fashion magazine becomes considerably more contentious at a museum with a civic role to play and a diverse public to serve. Ultimately, her argument is less about erasing Galliano from fashion history than about the conditions under which history should be written. Our guests Dana THOMAS Journalist & Author of "Fashionopolis"