Call me old-fashioned, but didn’t publicly exclaiming “I love Hitler” used to automatically disqualify people from receiving prestigious honors in Manhattan?
I’m pretty sure it did.
However, in these topsy-turvy times, flagrant and repeated antisemitism gets you the red carpet treatment in the Bigoted Apple.
Saying “F–king Jewish bitch!” and “Jewish c–t” to a woman at a bar is apparently not a dealbreaker whatsoever for Her Royal Haughtiness Anna Wintour.
The Condé Nast bigwig and former Vogue editor just proved it by picking disgraced fashion British designer John Galliano as next year’s Met Costume Institute show focus.
Anna said, “There is no one more deserving.”
So, the one-time Christian Dior creative director, who was found guilty in France in 2011 of going on antisemitic and racist rants, will be feted at the 2027 Met Gala, NYC’s annual gated-community prom, by A-List stars, sports icons, artists and politicians.
Haven’t we spent the last six years being lectured about inclusion by the exact same elite attendees of this $100,000-per-person event?
Haven’t they loudly driven the point home — typically in the service of self-preservation — that words and deeds matter and have consequences?
Why, yes they have.
Thus, in choosing Galliano, Wintour and her celeb pals are effectively saying, “Except when it comes to vile hate speech about Jews.”
That’s totally fine with them. In-Vogue, even.
By the way, this is not some vetting “whoopsie!” in which social media users dug up old offensive tweets. Galliano’s guilt is common knowledge. Wintour didn’t become the world’s only famous editor by being dumb. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
Wintour wasn’t caught between a rock and a racist. Galliano isn’t on the verge of death. He’s 65 — not 90. The Met hasn’t exhausted its supply of designers to showcase.
This is a carefully constructed, calculated exercise in a pal’s image rehab that’s happening opportunistically at a time when she knows she’ll get minimal pushback in the press for rubber-stamping an antisemite. Indeed, she has not.
The devil not only wears Prada — she issues public pardons.
“There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,” Wintour said on Vogue.com.
No one more deserving!
“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. 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.”
A k a a couple of placards buried amidst hundreds of fabulous couture dresses.
What exactly does Wintour consider a fleeting lapse of judgement?
Would it be this quote caught on video at the Paris bar Le Perle in 2011?
“I love Hitler, and people like you would be dead today,” the designer, who says he was drunk, is seen telling a Jewish woman. “Your mothers, your forefathers, would be f–king gassed and f–king dead.”
There’s only one takeaway to be had: That’s evil.
After the damning video dropped, Galliano was fired from Dior, went to rehab and reportedly met with the Anti-Defamation League.
Really, though, had there been no filmed evidence and therefore no conviction, would he have done either? Not a chance. That was a desperate, last-ditch effort to salvage the scraps of his career.
In court, Galliano testified he had no memory of the incidents in 2010 and 2011. The woman claimed he said the word “Jewish” at least 30 times.
Galliano blamed the tirade on his addiction to alcohol, valium and sleeping pills. Excuse me? Booze did not make any disgusting, bigoted comments. He did. Pills did not sinisterly plant those abhorrent thoughts into his head. They were already there.
Yet what did Wintour say? Ah, yes. “There is no one more deserving.”
And Anna’s gone full-out to ensure that everyone falls in line.
The New York Times reported that Wintour and Met Costume Institute head Andrew Bolton have met with “influential rabbis and Jewish leaders” in New York City “to get their thoughts on the potential issues with next year’s planned fashion extravaganza … and perhaps their blessing for it.”
Yuck. All it should earn is their full-throated condemnation.
This is not an endorsement of cancel culture. People can and have hired Galliano. Two years after the incident, he landed a high-profile residency with Oscar de la Renta that Wintour reportedly helped broker. You can see the pattern here.
Her failure this time is not recognizing the obvious difference between forgiveness and celebration.
She simply cannot throw a giant party, the biggest cultural event of the spring, honoring the guy who flatly said “I love Hitler” angrily at a Jewish bar patron. Ever. But especially right now.
According to NYPD data, about half of all hate crimes committed in 2026 have been against Jewish New Yorkers — the largest share of any group.
This bash is sending a loud-and-clear message from tastemakers that antisemitism is OK — nay, worthy of a showcase and glamorous ball.
That’s the only conclusion from what the all-powerful Anna has proclaimed from behind her sunglasses: For her ilk, there is no one more deserving.
