Sunday, March 6, 2011

The drastic fall of John Galliano

Whether you're in the fashion know or not, I'm sure you've all heard about John Galliano this past week. For those who don't know who he is, Galliano is a Gibraltar-born British fashion designer who was the head designer at Christian Dior for almost 16 years.

It started when a couple accused Galliano of shouting racial epithets at them in a bar. Initially, Galliano was just suspended until a video of another incident at the same bar surfaced of him spewing more epithets and claiming a love for Hitler. He was quickly fired.

Some have come to his defense. Fellow designer Jean-Paul Gaultier stated that Galliano is not a racist and implied that he had simply been provoked. Franca Sozzani, editor of Vogue Italia, defended his art and stated that it would be sad for Dior to continue without the man. Either way, this is perhaps the greatest proof that, when you represent another entity, you have to watch what you say in the public sphere, whether you mean the words or not.

As they say, the show must go on. Both of Galliano's collections were shown this week at Paris Fashion Week. There had been rumors that his namesake collection's show had been canceled, but it was instead given a smaller presentation.

During the show for the Dior Fall 2011 collection, the garment workers (who finished the collection after Galliano was fired) took to the stage to present the collection. It was a touching show of how his actions may have affected those that had worked for him.

Dior Garment Workers
jezebel.com

His final collection for Dior:
Christian Dior F11
fabsugar.com

His namesake presentation:
John Galliano F11
fashionologie.com

Both prove that this man is a great designer. It's unfortunate that he had to screw all up in the moment of stupidity.

This scandal has been big enough to capture SNL's attention. The opening sketch featured Galliano (played by Taran Killam) as a guest on Charlie Sheen's new talk show alongside Gadhafi and Lindsay Lohan (all these people were "winning" this week).

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