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A new documentary explores how John Galliano, the former Dior designer, came back from scandal

The "uncancelling" of John Galliano.

A new documentary explores how John Galliano, the former Dior designer, came back from scandal

John Galliano in an astronaut-themed outfit at the Christian Dior fall/winter 2006 haute couture collection. (Photo: Francois Guillot/AFP)

In March 2011, Dior fired its star designer John Galliano when a shocking video surfaced of him at La Perle bar in Paris. Slurring his words, he was hurling antisemitic comments at other drinkers and declaring, “I love Hitler.” He had already been suspended by the French couture house a few days earlier, following a separate incident in which two people accused him of making racist remarks.

Fashion has had more than its fair share of controversy, from photoshoots combining bondage imagery and children (Balenciaga) to fatphobic remarks (Karl Lagerfeld) and accusations of sexual misconduct (multiple photographers).

But this was different, and for the man feted as the greatest genius of his generation it was the start of the most dramatic downfall in fashion history. Now, Galliano’s path to redemption, as well as the circumstances that may have contributed to the scandal, are explored in High & Low — John Galliano, a fascinating new documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald, whose past work includes and The Last King of Scotland.

John Galliano’s Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2024 Artisanal collection. (Photo: Maison Margiela)

It lands at an interesting time. At 63, Galliano is on a creative high following his Artisanal 2024 show for Margiela, where he is creative director. His Brassaï-influenced depiction of characters from “the underbelly of Paris” in corsets and eerie porcelain doll make-up broke the internet, triggering tears and ecstatic reviews. It’s not just aesthetics; in 2023, sales at the brand owned by Renzo Rosso’s OTB Group were up 23 per cent from 2022.

It’s been a gradual process, but the Gibraltar-born designer has managed something that appeared impossible back in 2011; he has been uncancelled.

When we meet in a plush office in King’s Cross, central London, Macdonald tells me that the idea for the film arose in lockdown, when he started thinking about “forgiveness, and what happens in the post-religious world when people have sinned. Can they ever come back . . . what’s the process?” A friend suggested that Galliano would fit this theme, so Macdonald got in touch with the designer. He passed him on to US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who “was sort of acting as his guardian”.

Macdonald’s production company, KGB Films, also partnered with Conde Nast Entertainment (the film was financed through a French studio). Macdonald says of Conde Nast’s involvement that “I realised I needed them to get into the fashion world. But they have no say over the cut. It’s a totally independent movie.”

John Galliano for Christian Dior during the fall/winter 2004 haute couture collection in Paris. (Photo: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP)
John Galliano with model Linda Evangelista in Paris after presenting his Fall/Winter 1996 collection for Givenchy. (Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP)

The film begins with footage of one of the designer’s three known incidents of racist behaviour, then uses interviews with him and others to tell the story of his childhood with a violent father in south London, and his rise to rock-star status as creative director of Dior.

We see his groundbreaking 1984 graduate collection Les Incroyables, revisiting clothes from post-revolutionary France via a New Romantic sensibility. Model Kate Moss recalls his shows made on a shoestring after he moved to Paris in 1990, when he would create fantastical storylines around the theme of escape. “He genuinely didn’t care about money at all,” says his first financial backer, Johann Brun, and financial stability eluded him until Wintour and US Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley helped find more reliable funding.

It’s amazing for any artist to come back for a second act after such a public downfall

Similarly determined to support a prodigious talent, supermodels flew to Paris to appear for free in his autumn/winter 1994 collection with its kimonos and slip dresses, with Wintour noting that “for the next 10 years women went out in a slip dress”. In 1995, LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault appointed him creative director at Givenchy, and in 1996 moved him to Dior.

With hits such as Nicole Kidman’s 1997 chartreuse and chinoiserie Oscars dress, Galliano became a fashion legend, helping the industry to become the global juggernaut it is today, and setting Arnault on his gold-brick road to becoming the world’s (on-off) richest man. Archive footage in High & Low shows the LVMH head saying “since John arrived, we sell 50 per cent more every six months”.

Penelope Cruz and John Galliano at the Dior 2008 Cruise collection. (Photo: Mat Szwajkos/AFP)

Galliano adopted an increasingly eccentric persona as he took his post-show bow in costume — as a spaceman, as Napoleon (Macdonald hints at a Napoleonic ego throughout) and, disconcertingly given later events, an outfit that seemed to resemble Orthodox Jewish dress. While Galliano’s 1990s and 2000s designs are striking in their romance and theatricality, collections such as 1998’s Diorient Express, with its Indigenous American headdresses, now scream cultural appropriation. Galliano did attract controversy and even protests at the time, however, with a couture collection in 2000 partly inspired by homeless people.

High & Low reveals the torment behind the gilded facade. Galliano became a workaholic who would crash after shows, addicted to alcohol and prescription pills. DJ Jeremy Healy describes how on one occasion he went to the Ritz hotel in London and discovered Galliano was “in the lift, with no clothes on, for four hours, and he was telling everyone he was a lion . . . growling at people . . . so Sidney [Toledano, then Dior chief executive] had to pay for the whole weekend for all the guests, because they couldn’t use the lift”.

Christian Dior fall winter 2009 Haute Couture collection. (Photo: Francois Guillot/AFP)

Toledano’s contributions to the documentary — as well as the differences between some of his and Galliano’s versions of events — make for intriguing viewing. Toledano describes a meeting he called with Arnault to address Galliano’s addictions, in which he recalls that Arnault suggested the designer could stop working for six months to address his problems, but Galliano says, “I don’t remember ever being offered six months out.”

Why exactly Galliano said what he did is the great mystery at the heart of this documentary. Macdonald says he “started to think about this film as a kind of psychological detective story. How can you ever really know what’s going on inside somebody else’s head, especially when [Galliano] doesn’t even know? It raises these interesting questions about what we are responsible for — does everything we say really represent who we are?”

Was it innate racism, or the pressure of creating up to 32 collections a year? Macdonald says of LVMH that “I think they were in denial. He was doing incredibly well, making lots of money. So, yes, they should have done more . . . but it’s also maybe the teething problems of an industry that went from a cottage industry to a huge one.”

In court in Paris in 2011, charged with public insults for reasons of origin, religion, race or ethnicity (he was found guilty and given a suspended fine), Galliano blamed overwork and addiction. He has apologised and has worked with Jewish leaders to understand the history of the Jewish people, but how can one ever be sure he is being truly remorseful for racist actions, or regrets tarnishing his reputation?

To me the documentary feels balanced, although some might see making it all as supporting a fashion system that legitimises toxic behaviour. I’m inclined to share the view of Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin Givhan that “if you believe that he should be able to move on, and believe in giving him another chance, you also still can feel deeply for what he said. It’s possible to hold these two conflicting thoughts in your mind . . . ”

It seems fierce loyalty from industry players is the reason Galliano has been able to keep working. As Macdonald puts it, “It’s amazing for any artist to come back for a second act after such a public downfall.”

Once known as fashion’s showman, Galliano has kept a lower profile in his decade at Margiela. Macdonald says numerous people he talked to didn’t even know that he was the creative director there. For now, Galliano stays backstage after shows, but if that changes, a phoenix might make a suitable post-show costume.

Carola Long © 2024 The Financial Times

This story was originally published in The Financial Times

Source: Financial Times/bt
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