Designer John Galliano Arrested in Paris, fired from Dior

[jiaqi]

londoner, your city is the place where i was several times accosted as a c***k (and many other things i don't even understand). and if i remember correctly, your prince something called some of his brothers-in-arms pakis and how many people - columnists, talking heads, and just every other ordinary anglosaxons - came to his defense?

rather than getting into specifics of who was or wasn't killed or whether you believe in freedom of all speech or not, the important point is that Galliano was the figure head of a global brand and i'll bet that they make a pretty penny from their Jewish customer. as a corporation there is no way they could let him continue on after these incidents.

i call BS on this: a big chunk of revenue of lvmh now comes from china and chinese tourists visiting europe, but how did they handle the situation when sharon stone made that idiotic comment about chinese? when dior stores were besieged by mobs, when the govt. shut down an lv store in hangzhou, when that jew -arnault something - himself was dragged to beijing to get a dress down, dior reluctantly pulled that woman's ads only from china (which wasn't really a gesture given that the govt agency had the power to pull any and all ads within china and at that point was pretty bound to do), had dior china issue a half-***ed apologetic statement that was subsequently negated by its people in paris, and continued a warm and public relationship with that woman the world over.

it is not commercial. and given dior's long record of racism in china, the galliano incident thing isn't even about racism. it punishes only antisemitism and perhaps the arnault guy's huge ego.

not that it was a wise thing for the jewish management to do: the more gap it puts between racism and antisemitism, the less friends it has and risks becoming a real target of real racism.

**edited by mod**

 

[tarsha]

Karl Lagerfeld on Galliano: "I'm furious that it could happen"

Karl Lagerfeld is speaking out about John Galliano losing his job at Dior. "I'm furious that it could happen," he told WWD. "Because the question is no longer even whether he really said it. The image has gone around the world. It's a horrible image for fashion, because they think that every designer and everything in fashion is like this. This is what makes me crazy in that story."
"The thing is, we are a business world where, especially today, with the internet, one has to be more careful than ever, especially if you are a publicly known person," Lagerfeld added. "You cannot go in the street and be drunk - there are things you cannot do. I'm furious with him because of the harm he did to LVMH and [chairman and ceo] Bernard Arnault, who is a friend, and who supported him more than he supported any other designer in his group, because Dior is his favourite label. It's as if he had his child hurt."

dailyfrontrow.com

 

[m.j.]

have I, now?

yup

And if he's suffering from such a health problem, he should have removed himself from the every day life and checked into a loony bin. He can't be defended on those grounds.

just pointing out how easy it is to say sth that can be a major insult to a certain group of people.
1. it is not called loony
2. no one should be removed from their lives unless they are incapable of taking care of themselves OR if they are dangerous
​

 

[tarsha]

John Galliano just released apology statement

twitter/HilaryAlexander

 

[papillote]

For a start, I don't think Bloch is actually Jewish. She was called one perhaps because she was in an area with a significant Jewish population. Besides, I don't think anyone here is suggesting one must sympathise with her, notwithstanding whether she's Jewish or not.

She told radio Europe 1 she isn't.

John Galliano just released apology statement

Good. After he denied, now he apologies. But for what ? Wihch of the 3 incidents ? For what words ? I seriously don't want the "asian comment" to be forgotten.

 

[pavonine]

yup

just pointing out how easy it is to say sth that can be a major insult to a certain group of people.
1. it is not called loony
2. no one should be removed from their lives unless they are incapable of taking care of themselves OR if they are dangerous
​

1) no, it's called being a bigoted racist. loony was the term I used to refer to who kill people because they think a dog told them to, because those are INDEED loony and belong to the loony bin.
2) Some of those that are mentally disabled can be dangerous, and should (and mostly, would) always be under supervision of a caretaker, not sat in a pub hurling insults.

I wasn't insulting the mentally disabled; was only saying that one can't cite mental instability as an excuse in this case.

 

[tarsha]

John Galliano Releases a Statement

John Galliano has released a statement to the press. The full text follows here:

Since the events of last Thursday evening I have not been able to make any public comment on what took place based upon advice from my French lawyer. However, given the continuing delays at the French Prosecutor’s Office I should make my position clear.

I completely deny the claims made against me and have fully co-operated with the Police investigation.

A number of independent witnesses have given evidence and have told the Police that I 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.

However, I fully accept that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people.

I must take responsibility for the circumstances in which I found myself and for allowing myself to be seen to be behaving in the worst possible light. I only have myself to blame and I know that I must face up to my own failures and that I must work hard to gain people's understanding and compassion. To start this process I am seeking help and all I can hope for in time is to address the personal failure which led to these circumstances and try and earn people's forgiveness.

I have fought my entire life against prejudice, intolerance and discrimination having been subjected to it myself. In all my work my inspiration has been to unite people of every race, creed, religion and sexuality by celebrating their cultural and ethnic diversity through fashion. That remains my guiding light.

Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence.

harpersbazaar.com

 

[jiaqi]

oh yes, big righteous man, karl lagerfeld - was he the guy who, while presenting his chanel collection in shanghai, had the guts to say to the local hosts that his collection wasn't really related to china and that he didn't dare/care to leave his hotel? not to mention the whole collection - as well as the video made at the time - smacks of racism.

that this senile old man would chime in only proves that neither commercial interests nor outrage at racism as such had much to do with the way the employers, the european media and western public opinion handled the situation

 

[papillote]

I don't understand "I completely deny the claims made against me" then "I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence" ?

 

[CholoChic]

It is clear,
HE IS NOT antisemitism
but his behaviour was stupid and bad!

I don't understand "I completely deny the claims made against me" then "I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence" ?

 

[pavonine]

oh yes, big righteous man, karl lagerfeld - was he the guy who, while presenting his chanel collection in shanghai, had the guts to say to the local hosts that his collection wasn't really related to china and that he didn't dare/care to leave his hotel?

None of his collections are really related to their putative origin of inspiration. The Shanghai collection was no more China-inspired than his Moscow collection was Russia inspired.

not to mention the whole collection - as well as the video made at the time - smacks of racism.

Because he used Caucasian models? Then again, don't almost all Asian Vogues use Caucasian models frequently? Are all of them racist, then? I think you're taking unnecessary umbrage here. China is going to be a superpower in less than ten years, usurping US's puissance. The West is losing importance, our economies are contracting, and there's a perceptible paradigm shift that's occurring. The whole world is going to bow down to China, and fashion won't be ploughing a lonely furrow still patronising only Caucasians.

 

[tarsha]

John Galliano: Downfall of a Couturier by WWD.

 

[Les_Sucettes]

londoner, your city is the place where i was several times accosted as a c***k (and many other things i don't even understand). and if i remember correctly, your prince something called some of his brothers-in-arms pakis and how many people - columnists, talking heads, and just every other ordinary anglosaxons - came to his defense?

.

And? Did I said there was no racism in here? What i said and is true, that offences against asians are the moment the ones that are given the most relevance and the ones most effort as being expended in suppressing. If it's working or not it's debatable, but saying that insults against asians are ignored in relation to other racial slurs it's simply not true.

If you think the public opinions defended Harry you are TOTALLY wrong. Plus Harry is one of those persons of absolutely no consequence or credibility that everyone expects always something totally stupid to come from that side. (dressing up as Hitler, anyone?). Plus just for the record he's not my prince, I'm not english.

 

[jiaqi]

asian vogues' editors are picked by some caucasians: they speak english and are house-trained well. locally grown fashion magazines lean on local models heavily. (and yeah, given the way they pick editors for asian vogues, conde nast is pretty racist, only hiring editors for its chinese edition who have adopted anglosaxon names)

that particular video is racist because the makers didn't even deign to find someone who actually speaks chinese and portrayed its people as subservient, robot-like and looking up to some parisian fashion gods.

and what i said had nothing to do with china's place in the world, which the chinese were very certain of for the past few millennia and has always been a lot safer than either the jews or the europeans even in the nation's darkest hours. it is the ill in the minds of the jewish management of dior and lvmh, in the minds of those who now attack galliano for his anti-jew comments with savage moral satisfaction while disguising latent racism of their own, that i speak of.

given the jews' far perilous position in human history than the chinese', it shocks me and strikes me as foolish that they would work so assiduously to differentiate between antisemitic attacks and racist attacks on asians and chinese.

 

[CholoChic]

Our king has left France...

Galliano Said to Be Headed for Rehab
By SUZY MENKES
Published: March 2, 2011
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PARIS — John Galliano, the talented and troubled designer who was fired by the fashion house Christian Dior for making anti-Semitic remarks in a drunken rant at a Paris bar, issued an apology for his actions, and left France to enter rehabilitation on Wednesday, according to friends who refused to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.
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Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
John Galliano at the spring 2011 Christian Dior show in Paris.
‘‘Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologize for my behavior in causing any offense,’’ Mr. Galliano said in a statement issued through Harbottle and Lewis, a London law firm, according to the Reuters news service. The designer's statement said 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" during the altercation in a Parisian bar last week. He also has started legal action for defamation, according to the statement.

He was persuaded to accept treatment for his alcohol problems by close colleagues and friends like the supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, the sources said. While the treatment center is not known, it is likely that his destination is The Meadows, a facility in Wickenberg, Arizona, where Elton John and Donatella Versace were treated in recent years.

For Christian Dior, the billion-dollar company that dismissed him on Tuesday for making the remarks, the problems are only multiplying. The Dior autumn 2011 women’s wear show will go ahead here on Friday, according to a person at Dior who asked not to be identified.

The future of the John Galliano brand, which is underwritten by Dior, relies mainly on licenses and barely breaks even financially, is complex. Executives will have to see whether those external partners still want to be associated with a designer whose name has been globally smirched.

But more dramatic for Dior, and for the entire future of haute couture, is the problem of finding a replacement for Mr. Galliano. From the British designer’s tsunami of ideas in the twice-a-year haute couture and ready-to-wear collections, design teams build ranges of inter-season collections and accessory lines. Without leadership, the fashion house can run only a short time on empty.

In the past, Dior’s parent company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and its founder and chief executive, Bernard Arnault, have tended to switch both executives and designers from brand to brand. Mr. Galliano himself started his reign at LVMH at Givenchy in 1995, before switching to Dior the following year. So it is natural that the name of Riccardo Tisci, the current designer at Givenchy, Italian-born and British-trained, is considered high on the list of possible replacements at Dior.

Mr. Tisci, like Mr. Galliano an alumni of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, has climbed the steep learning curve toward the heights of haute couture at Givenchy. The theory goes that other LVMH brands, like Céline, Loewe and Louis Vuitton, might then follow with changes in a kind of fashion merry-go-round.

Other theories suggest that a rising fashion star might be plucked to take over at Dior or that an established success story — such as the invigoration of Lanvin by the designer Alber Elbaz — could be transferred to the LVMH stable. But with so many long-established houses searching for new talent, even with the might of Dior, a speedy choice will not be easy.

 

[angel222]

hard to interpret this line any other way. it is tantamount to blaming jews who expired in concentration camps for not resisting "assiduously" enough.

Oh my lord the comments here are more edgy and intellectual than the Wall Street Journal.

 

[papillote]

This article has even a location name for rehab... and here they have other reactions, including Gaspard Yurkievich's one.

 

[Les_Sucettes]

I don't understand "I completely deny the claims made against me" then "I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence" ?

I guess reading this article they keep repeating it. I wonder if people do not spot the paradox...

 

[m.j.]

Oh my lord the comments here are more edgy and intellectual than the Wall Street Journal.

I'll second that....

 

[agee]

I don't understand "I completely deny the claims made against me" then "I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence" ?

I can see how it's confusing but my take is that last week's incident where he is alleged to have said, “dirty Jewish face” and “Asian bastard, I will kill you” is part of a legal matter and he has denied those allegations and has filed a defamation suit against his accusers. Also somewhere in that mix is some stuff about slapping and an ugly handbag. I think that those are the claims that he's denying.

There was also another incident that took place last October and was recorded where he made the "I love Hitler" comment and that is where he is apologizing for offending people. Presumably he's also apologizing to ugly people and, if the allegation is true, to the owners of ugly handbags.