In this summer’s couture blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada 2, the moment of greatest humiliation for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley comes about halfway through the film. With her Vogue-adjacent fashion magazine Runway imperiled by budget cuts and its philistine new owner, Miranda is not spared the hair-shirt treatment the rest of her staff endure. In a scene that is supposed to be funny but ends up being almost tragic, this ice-hearted doyenne of the fashion world is compelled to travel from New York to Milan Fashion Week in coach class, among hoi polloi. As the usually excellent Streep is forced to mug and gurn at the humiliation that she endures, I found myself mouthing “The horror! The horror!” – but for altogether different reasons.

Memories of Streep’s guppy impression came back recently when I was contemplating the potential reputational downfall that the real-life model for La Priestley, in the form of Vogue’s Anna Wintour, is facing. The reason for this ignominy is that next year’s Met Gala, the most talked-about event in the Manhattan social calendar, has descended into chaos, thanks to John Galliano’s stepping down as the theme of the event, as well as the cancellation of an exhibition, John Galliano: Horizons, that was set to take place next spring.

All the adulation in the world cannot disguise what a humiliation this is for Wintour

All the adulation in the world cannot disguise what a humiliation this is for Wintour

The fashion designer was an early object of cancel culture in 2011 for a series of racist and anti-Semitic remarks that he made. Over the past decade Galliano has been largely welcomed back into the fold, so he may have been surprised as the outcry that followed the announcement of the exhibition.

Nonetheless, he bowed to pressure and issued a statement to his 1.6 million Instagram followers that said: “I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time… I also recognize and respect that an exhibition honoring my work........

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