Only a few days away from Dior’s show during Paris Fashion Week, the 15 years career of Galliano as Chief Designer at Dior has abruptly come to an end. The French fashion house determined to cut all ties with John Galliano following the racist and anti-Semitic allegations at a couple in a Parisian brassiere. Dior already suspended Galliano last Friday.
Previous week, Galliano was arrested when he supposedly verbally attacked a French and Italian guest of a Paris bar. It wasn’t the first time the couture designer made anti-Semitic comments, tabloid the Sun revealed a video featuring the designer proclaiming he ‘Loved Hitler’. Dior decided Galliano crossed the line, and is letting the designer go for the reason of his ‘odious nature’, said Chief Executive Sidney Toledano.
On the red carpet of the Oscars, we already noticed an almost Dior-less awards ceremony. Award winning actress Natalie Portman, who’s contracted to be the face of Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, decided against wearing a Dior dress at the Oscars. Being Jewish, this was her way to express her revolt and she wishes no association with Galliano, she said in a formal statement.
Graduated from Central St. Martins, Galliano is taken legal action against his prosecutors for defamation. His lawyer Stephane Zerbib denied the charges of both events. The show must go on by the looks of it, Dior’s AW11 catwalk presentation is scheduled to go ahead on Sunday. In the meantime, rumours are going round who might take over Galliano’s responsibilities including Haider Ackermann, and Riccardo Tisci currently at Givenchy.
French fashion house Dior is part of luxury fashion group LVMH, and sits next to Marc Jacobs and Loewe. Since the scandal the Dior shares have increased with 4 percent.