Dior fires “odious” Galliano over racist slurs

John Galliano

PARIS, (Reuters) – French fashion house Christian  Dior <DIOR.PA> fired its star designer John Galliano yesterday  after an online video clip spread around the world showing him  hurling anti-Semitic abuse at people in a Paris bar.

John Galliano

Chief Executive Sidney Toledano said the “odious nature” of  Galliano’s behaviour on the video led Dior to relieve him of his  duties after 15 years as the label’s chief designer and just  three days before Dior’s catwalk show at Paris Fashion Week.

“I very firmly condemn what was said by John Galliano, which  totally contradicts the values which have always been defended  by Christian Dior,” Toledano said in a statement.

The sequence of events surrounding Galliano’s departure  included an almost Dior-free Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday  and prompted Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman — who has a  deal to promote Dior perfume — to voice her disgust with the  British designer.

The saga started on Thursday evening when Paris police said  they had been called to La Perle bar in Paris’s hip Marais  district where they found an inebriated Galliano delivering a  torrent of abuse to a couple on the bar’s terrace.

The officers escorted Galliano to a police station and then  home. The couple complained that Galliano had hurled racist and  anti-Semitic comments at them, an offence under French law.

A person close to Galliano, who spoke to him by telephone on  Tuesday, said he had been struggling to cope for some time with  the pressures of his life under the spotlight.

“He knows he’s a dead man. It is horribly violent and  tragic. I am very pessimistic about his future,” she said.

SHOCKED AND DISGUSTED

Dior suspended Galliano on Friday after which a fresh  complaint was filed over an incident in October. The video  surfaced on Monday on the website of Britain’s Sun tabloid.

Dior — a favourite on the red carpet — was all but  invisible at Sunday’s Academy Awards and Portman, who is Jewish,  issued a statement on Monday condemning Galliano.   Portman, who won a best actress Oscar for ballet film “Black  Swan” on Sunday, has a deal to promote the Miss Dior Cherie  perfume. She said she was “deeply shocked and disgusted” at the  video clip and wanted nothing more to do with Galliano.

“In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud  to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr Galliano in any  way,” she said, calling the comments “terrible”.

It was not clear whether her contract with Dior would be  affected. Galliano was not involved with the brand’s perfume.

Galliano’s lawyer Stephane Zerbib has denied the charges,  telling Reuters on Monday “he has never said such things.”

Donatella Versace said in Milan there was no justification  for the insults but she doubted Galliano had meant to be racist.

Giorgio Armani told fashion reporters the episode must have  been due to “a moment of weakness”. “You can’t expect exemplary  bahaviour from an eccentric man like him,” he added.

The person close to Galliano, a fashion expert who asked not  to be named, said he has struggled with having to constantly  outperform and with living a life disconnected from reality.

“The truth is that the lid has been removed. Dior had kept  him inside this closed pressure cooker and he was trying to  survive. Dior wanted people to believe that everything was fine  but he was not alright,” she said.

Paris prosecutors are to decide by the end of the week  whether Galliano should face trial over Thursday’s incident in  the Marais, a neighbourhood packed with gay bars and fashion  outlets that was formerly the city’s Jewish quarter.

CONSEQUENCES

It was not clear whether Dior’s show would go ahead,  although a Sunday show of Galliano’s own label will still run.

Dior is the leading fashion name at LVMH <LVMH.PA>, the  world’s biggest luxury group led by billionaire Bernard Arnault.