The shamed 50-year-old Mr. John Galliano was sacked by Christian Dior this week over his outburst, which was caught on video.
His court trial, as we come to know, could take place as soon as next month and he may face up to six months in jail, if he is convicted.
Mr. Galliano tried his best to apologise for his outrageous behaviour by saying, “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. Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. “
Well, it doesn’t work like this Mr. Galliano. First attack someone because of his/her background, abuse him/her verbally and insult his/her heritage and later as you know, when you are in deep trouble, you try to apologise for your inexucable actions.
Why do you need help, or why do you seek help? What is it that you have missed? Is it very difficult to respect and understand that each human being live in this world with her/his own belief, heritage, language and culture?
Or have you thought being a professional and a big star in your field gave you the liecence to make whatever comments you want, away from the job, without repercussions?
Of course there are a lot of questions to be answered Mr. Galliano aren’t there? Perhaps as Giorgio Armani said, “He needs to think carefully before opening his mouth again.”
The show on Friday by Dior did go on. At the Musee Rodin Sidney Toledano who is Dior’s president and chief executive took to the catwalk and tried to distance the luxury label Dior from Galliano by saying, “It has been deeply painful to see the name of Dior associated with disgraceful statements attributed to its designer, no matter how brilliant he may be.”
Karl Lagerfeld went a step futher to say that the actions of one disgraced designer have cast a shadow over the whole industry.
I wonder what a fellow South Londoner of Mr. Galliano namely Naomi Campbell must be feeling as she is one of many top models that form part of his circle of friends.
Naomi Campbell and her campaign to highlight lack of diverse models on the world’s fashion catwalks must by this incident now have brought the issue of racism, in the fashion industry into real focus.
The question we must ask now is how deep and well rooted are the comments and remarks aired by Mr. Galliano, in the world of fashion?
Copyright Semra Eren Nijhar – All rights reserved
Semra Eren-Nijhar 