News Analysis

Galliano's Departure From Dior Ends a Wild Fashion Ride

By SUZY MENKES

Published: March 1, 2011

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Christian Dior Fires John Galliano

Christian Dior Fires John Galliano

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Dior said in a statement Tuesday that it was beginning legal action to dismiss Mr. Galliano, the 50-year-old designer, whose romantic and theatrical fashion shows revitalized haute couture, following accusations of drunken anti-Semitic rants in Paris.

A controversial collection in 2000, inspired by the homeless, their coats exquisitely tailored with broken stitches, contrasted with soaring romantic evening gowns shown in a rose garden in the Bois de Boulogne.

Although the Dior style often had historic origins, updating the famous 1947 New Look of the founder, Christian Dior, Mr. Galliano added an undercurrent of sexuality, perversity and sometimes a dark side. The balance might be between the exquisite elegance of a bias-cut gown and the fierce 1999 collection of science fiction outfits that brought the spirit of The Matrix movie to the grounds of Versailles.

Fascinated by history, if more recently drowning in references to the past, Mr. Galliano at his best would reference exotically fashionable women like the Parisian hostess Misia Sert or the Marchesa Luisa Casati, as painted by Giovanni Boldini.

Each collection would be meticulously researched, often by visits to distant places, and developed into a hand-made reference book in the way Mr. Galliano was trained at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. His first collection, on graduating in 1984, was inspired by Les Incroyables of the French revolutionary period.

In 1995, Mr. Galliano was appointed to Givenchy; less than two years later he was moved to Dior. Both fashion houses, as well Mr. Gallianos own label, are owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the worlds largest luxury group, headed by the entrepreneur Bernard Arnault.

Born in Gibraltar to a Spanish mother, Mr. Gallianos magpie imagination and his ability to turn his ideas into extravagant hats or dainty shoes have made him a haute gypsy not least because of his flowing locks and theatrical costumed appearances at the end of each show.

Collaborations with other creative people, like the milliner Stephen Jones, who could turn every whim from fox hunting to Madame Butterfly into a hat, made the Dior couture shows artistic treasures. Other more accessible ready-to-wear collections softened the drama and the hard sexual beat, helping the house of Dior to break the billion-dollar barrier.

Friends of Mr. Galliano, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, say that they have finally persuaded the troubled designer to go immediately into rehab and that the pace of fashion today, and particularly the rigorous structure of a corporate fashion house, broke the fragile, artistic creator.

While the vile statements seen coming from Mr. Gallianos drunken lips on the Internet video deserved the nearly-universal condemnation they were receiving, there is pathos in the vision of one of the worlds most famous and best paid designers alone, clutching a glass in a bar. The pressure from fast fashion and from the instant Internet age to create new things constantly has worn down other famous names. Marc Jacobs, design director of Louis Vuitton, ended a wild streak in rehab. Calvin Klein famously rambled across a sports pitch and admitted to substance abuse. And the late Yves Saint Laurent spent a lifetime fighting his demons.

Above all, the suicide of Alexander McQueen, a year almost to the day before Mr. Gallianos public disgrace, is a specter that hangs over the fashion industry. The death from cardiac arrest of Mr. Gallianos closest collaborator, Steven Robinson, in 2007 also sent out an early warning signal.

Most other designers, preparing their collections for Paris Fashion Week, and stunned by Mr. Gallianos swift fall from grace, asked not to be quoted on the record.

But Victoire de Castellane, Diors jewelry designer, summed up the general feeling when she said: Its terrible and pathetic at the same time. I never knew that he had such thoughts in him. Or that he so needed help.

Although it has not been publicly confirmed, a colleague of Mr. Galliano said that the designer would fight his dismissal from Dior and now has retained the London lawyer Gerrard Tyrrell, of Harbottle and Lewis, who represented the model Kate Moss in 2005 when she was accused of cocaine use.