The group of people gathered for a closed-door meeting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May was unusual by any measure: Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director and a Met trustee; Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Met’s Costume Institute; the fashion designer John Galliano — and a handful of the most influential rabbis and Jewish leaders in New York City.

The meeting had been orchestrated to get their thoughts on the potential issues with next year’s planned fashion extravaganza — a show dedicated to Galliano’s work — and perhaps their blessing for it. It was one of several such meetings held with Jewish leaders over the last year.

Galliano is considered by many in the fashion world to be one of the most important contemporary designers, whose work as head designer of Dior, a job he held from 1996 to 2011, went beyond mere fashion to enter the realm of fantasy. But he became a household name after a video of him making antisemitic comments became international news in 2011. He subsequently lost his job at Dior, was convicted of a hate crime in a Paris court, and embarked on a period of rehabilitation; he returned to fashion as creative director of Maison Margiela in 2014.

All of which still makes him a thorny choice for the show at this moment. Antisemitism is on the rise, and some Jewish New Yorkers are uneasy with the leadership of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, most recently after the stabbing of two men last week in broad daylight, one of whom was leaving a Jewish community center in Manhattan. The attack is being prosecuted as a hate crime.

The Galliano exhibition — which will be kicked off by the annual Met Gala, perhaps the most closely watched red carpet in the world — would make him only the third living designer ever to be made the subject of a solo exhibition at the museum, joining Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo. It’s the highest honor the institution can confer on a designer.