Fresh-faced fashion talent, John Galliano, stepped straight off the bus at Penn Station with nothing but three bags, two bucks and the one dream job a million girls would kill for after securing a three week internship at Oscar de la Renta’s design studio in New York, according to a report in WWD.
In what is described as “a stunning [stuh-huh-ning] development“, the stalwart designer has extended to fashion’s IRL Jenny Humphrey the chance to “spend some time with him” in the famed de la Renta atelier during the madcap weeks prior to New York Fashion Week. It’s expected the keen master’s apprentice will learn the ins-and-outs of the industry (“don’t be tardy, Valencia is the most flattering filter, always get more wine”) that has fascinated him since his childhood in Gibraltar.
John, who has spent the last two years in rehab and thus is unaware of how the industry (and the world) has changed, needs to keep his friends close and his frenemies in PR even closer as – contrary to changing appearances – it’s still the same industry that two years ago all but severed its ties with the British designer, who was made a redundant social pariah after a vile anti-Semitic rant caught on camera cost him both his positions at Dior, his own eponymous label, his friendship with Natalie Portman and his dignity as a human being.
De la Renta explains his decision to usher in the era of Galliano’s comeback, as thus:
John and I have known each other for many years and I am a great admirer of his talent. He has worked long and hard on his recovery and I am happy to give him the opportunity to reimmerse himself in the world of fashion and reacclimate in an environment where he has been so creative.
Everyone in life deserves a second chance, especially someone as talented as John. I think that life is about forgiving and helping people… I think John is doing all the right things.
In his first statement since pleading guilty to charges of anti-Semitism (for which he received significant fines but no imprisonment), Galliano said:
I am an alcoholic. I have been in recovery for the past two years. Several years prior to my sobriety, I descended into the madness of the disease. I said and did things which hurt others, especially members of the Jewish community. I have expressed my sorrow privately and publicly for the pain which I caused, and I continue to do so. I remain committed to making amends to those I have hurt.
It’s expected that Galliano will continue to moonlight as a fabulous apiarist matador cartoon villain pirate leprechaun in between visits to the atelier and Starbucks.
Drama.
Photo by Pascal Le Segretain via Getty
