Proving there are at least two sides to every story the hype surrounding Christian Dior’s eccentric fashion designer, John Galliano, and his racism-related arrest in Paris last Thursday continues to gather momentum as it travels further through the media grapevine. Headlines including “John Galliano suspended by Dior following arrest over anti-semitic rant”, “Dior suspends Galliano after booze-fuelled bar spat” and more recently “John Galliano fights back as conflicting reports emerge” are abundant and are causing quite a stir in the fashion world. Even upon writing this post, further ‘racist’ developments are surfacing and stories are shifting shape.
It was originally reported that the Dior designer was drinking at a café in the Marais district of Paris last Thursday night when he allegedly began verbally assaulting a couple at a nearby table. In response to the woman’s supposed query as to why Galliano doesn’t design clothes for ‘women like her’, Galliano apparently responded by (amongst other things) calling her a “Dirty Jewish face” and commenting that she should be dead. When her male friend tried to intervene and stand up to Galliano, the designer reportedly turned on him also with the remark, “Fucking Asian bastard, I will kill you”. The woman contends that she had no idea who Galliano was until a nearby diner exclaimed, “C’est une star, c’est John Galliano”.
However, according to website sleek-mag.com, an unnamed bystander said that Galliano was simply trying to chat with the pair. The witness said that the man told Galliano, “You’re ugly, you’re disgusting, move away from here,” at which point Galliano reportedly replied to the woman, “You’re ugly, and your bag is ugly, too.” Galliano then allegedly referred to the man as Asian (he was), at which point the man and woman called the police. It all sounds very high school ‘he said-she said’ name-calling and finger-pointing… But you can’t help but think the “your bag is ugly” comment may not necessarily be accurate. My 4-year-old nephew’s got better zingers than that – surely a fashion industry main player is capable of much stronger verbal vitriol.
Galliano has firmly denied all allegations regarding this anti-semitic assault and has since filed a claim of defamation and injury against the couple. Police are still investigating why this bizarre attack actually happened and are in the process of sorting through the conflicting stories that are emerging.
According to Sidney Toledano, chairman and CEO of Dior Couture, Christian Dior has an “unequivocal zero-tolerance policy regarding anti-Semitism and racism” – and has thus suspended Galliano from work until the results of the French police’s investigation of the incident are finalised.
Written by Jess Glass
Title Image by Pascal Le Segretain via Getty
