The Metropolitan Museum of Art has revealed the theme for its 2027 Costume Institute exhibition and the Met Gala that opens it, choosing a subject that turns attention away from red-carpet spectacle and toward the clothes of daily life. The exhibition, titled extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday, will run at the Met Fifth Avenue from 9 May 2027 to 9 January 2028, with the gala held on 3 May 2027.

The show will look at how designers elevate ordinary garments and everyday rituals into objects of beauty and meaning, a framing that invites a more reflective tone than the high-concept themes of recent years. The Costume Institute's spring exhibitions have become one of the museum's most reliable draws, and the accompanying gala is the museum's biggest annual fundraiser, watched far beyond the fashion world.

The announcement follows a turbulent period for the event, after the departure of John Galliano, whose exit cast a shadow over the planning of the 2027 edition. The museum has moved to reset the conversation around the show itself rather than the personalities attached to it.

Details of the exhibition's contents and the gala's co-chairs have yet to be announced, but the theme suggests the museum wants to widen the appeal of the Costume Institute beyond couture, reaching visitors who recognise their own wardrobes in the objects on display. The 2027 show will be watched closely as a test of whether the institution can keep the gala's cultural momentum while shifting its focus.