John Galliano has been fired by Christian Dior. Company C.E.O. Sidney Toledano, who is of Jewish heritage, called Galliano’s behavior “odious” and said in a statement, “I unequivocally condemn the statements made by John Galliano, which are in total contradiction to the longstanding core values of Christian Dior.” Notwithstanding its sudden lack of a creative director, Dior intends to go ahead with its fashion show this Friday. [WWD]
And a spokesperson for John Galliano‘s namesake fashion brand, which is financially backed by Dior, says that Galliano‘s show on Sunday will go ahead. [Vogue UK]
At the Oscars on Sunday night, Natalie Portman — who recently became the face of Miss Dior Chérie perfume, and gushed to the press about how nice Galliano was to make vegan Dior shoes for her — did not wear a Dior dress. But when a reporter asked her about that choice at the post-Academy Awards press conference, Portman’s publicist interjected, and the exchange was even stricken from the official transcript of the event. (Some are calling this “censorship,” which is a silly bit of hyperbole, but still.) After collecting herself, after watching that video, and no doubt after making a discreet phonecall to Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy HQ, Portman released a statement last night that read: “I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. 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. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.” [On The Runway]
As for his ongoing legal fight, Galliano yesterday went to police headquarters in the neighborhood where he is alleged to have screamed racial and anti-Semitic epithets during three separate incidents. He arrived around 2 p.m., and waded through a crowd of photographers and reporters accompanied by his lawyer. Police had previously announced that Galliano was to be interviewed face-to-face with two of his accusers, Géraldine Bloch and Philippe Virgitti. The designer left the station around 7 p.m. He made no statements to the press, but his lawyer did say that Galliano “never made an anti-Semitic remark in more than ten years at Dior.” [Libération]
Meanwhile, Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani questions the intentions of the people who recorded the video in which a very drunk Galliano says, “I love Hitler,” and talks about all the people, “your mothers, your forefathers,” who should be “gassed.” Sozzani wrote on her blog that Galliano was “clearly provoked” and that the people who released the cell phone video were “just some parvenus of journalistic scandal who, in our opinion, were waiting to have three minutes of video to sell to someone for thirty pieces of silver.” She has since edited the post heavily, removing some of the above language, and adding, “we condemn the extremely seriously racist content of what he said.” [Vogue Italia]