Footage from John Galliano‘s first F2F interview since 2011, when he was dismissed as creative director at Dior for making anti-Semitic comments in a Paris bar (a moment for which he is both deeply regretful and has no memory of) has been published online.
The now 2-years-and-3-months sober designer discussed his downfall with talk-show host Charlie Rose on Wednesday night. Much of the interview encircled the taxing pressures of the fashion industry, like having to push out a combined 32 collections a year between Galliano and Dior. And rather than to stimulate creativity, which he acknowledges as a common reason for artistic types turning to substance abuse, his addiction was a product of mad stresses. “I mixed alcohol with benzos, which is a lethal combination. I would take Valium to stop the shaking so that I could do the fittings and then the sleeping pills so that I could sleep. My life became unmanageable…I would use the alcohol to quiet the voices [in my head].”
He also identifies with the anguish felt by Lee McQueen prior to his suicide in 2011, stating “I knew Alexander – I knew Lee. I understood. That loneliness, that pain,” he said. “I mean as addicts we’re in such perfection – we’re setting that bar impossibly high, we don’t understand how we’re doing it and people say, ‘Wow, how are you going to top that?’ And we’re like, ‘Well yeah we’re going to, don’t worry.’ That’s what makes us wake up in the morning. I was very sad.”
Here are a couple of clips from the marathon interview:
Via Vogue
