THE SACKING of star designer John Galliano (50) by Christian Dior yesterday following the furore over a drunken rant in a Paris bar in which he allegedly made racist and anti-Semitic remarks, has shocked the fashion world. It has also left vacant one of the industry’s most powerful and high-profile positions.
The British designer has been creative director of Dior for 15 years and is credited with energising the image and worldwide sales of the company, now worth $10 billion. He was due to present his autumn/winter collection for the fashion house on Friday, which may still go ahead without him. His own label collection, which is also backed by luxury empire Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, on Sunday, however, is in doubt.
Though Galliano is contesting the allegations, the release of a video taken in the same bar in the Marais in which he is filmed saying in a slurred voice, “I love Adolf Hitler”, provoked further damage.
Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano’s statement immediately after the incident condemning the designer’s remarks was followed by actor Natalie Portman, who is Jewish and the face of a Christian Dior fragrance, also disassociating herself yesterday from the designer saying she was “shocked and disgusted by the video”.
Galliano, always accompanied by a bodyguard in Paris, is known for the flamboyant theatricality of his catwalk creations. His appearance in various costumed attire at the end of his shows are spectacles in themselves.
Bernard Arnault, billionaire owner of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, described Galliano’s “exuberant” look and artistic vision last month and said he was valuable to the company being both artist and businessman “and very down to earth”.
Working for Dior was the dream of Galliano’s life and his fall from grace has been fast and unexpected. What the future will hold for him now is uncertain.
Emer Melody, an Irishwoman who worked with Galliano as head of PR in London, described him yesterday “as the most unassuming, polite and kind person I’ve ever met”.
“I don’t think Dior had any option, but it was a situation that went horribly wrong for him. You have the highs of Nicole Kidman wearing your dress at the Oscars on Monday and on Tuesday your job is gone. That’s fashion.”
Rumours circulating yesterday in Paris were that Italian designer Riccardo Tisci from Givenchy is hotly tipped to follow in Galliano’s wake, a bitter irony for Galliano who was with Givenchy before promotion to Dior in 1996.