PARIS – Disgraced designer John Galliano apologised yesterday for behaviour that has cost him his job at luxury label Christian Dior and changed his fortunes overnight from fashion star to figure of ridicule.
Dior said yesterday it intended to go ahead with its ready-to-wear show tomorrow after it fired Galliano on Tuesday for his “odious” behaviour on a widely viewed video showing its former chief designer spewing anti-Semitic insults and expressing his admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Galliano said in a statement that anti-Semitism and racism “have no part in our society” and “unreservedly” apologised for causing offence. He is expected to hear by the end of the week whether Paris prosecutors will put him on trial for uttering anti-Semitic insults after complaints that he hurled racist abuse at people in a Paris bar last Thursday, and in an incident in October.
The video surfaced on the internet after the accusations were made public and has been widely viewed. It shows Galliano in a bar looking a little worse for wear and slurring anti-Semitic insults into the camera. It is not confirmed the video was shot last Thursday.
The designer said independent witnesses at the bar last Thursday had told police he “was subjected to verbal harassment and an unprovoked assault when an individual tried to hit me with a chair having taken violent exception to my look and my clothing. For these reasons I have commenced proceedings for defamation and the threats made against me,” he said in the statement.
Dior said it would go on with showcasing Galliano’s autumn-winter 2011 collection.
The Dior event is a highlight of Paris Fashion Week, but industry watchers said they were not looking forward to the awkwardness of having to applaud the creations of a designer who could face trial for racist slurs. – (Reuters)