Prepare for John Galliano's Redemption Tour
John Galliano may have apologized for the anti-Semitic slurs that got him fired from Dior back in 2011, but two years later and he's far from redeemed. Now it seems like he's hoping to change that in a very public fashion.
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Last week Women's Wear Daily's Erik Maza reported that Galliano is giving his first extensive interview to Vanity Fair's Ingrid Sischy, and now Maza adds that Galliano is also looking to do a TV interview, possibly with Charlie Rose. The interviews would give a chance for Galliano to control public opinion about himself on his own terms, and—we assume—would likely be repentant.
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It's been something of a slow-build strategy. The fashion world, to an extent, has already opened its arms to him as it was announced that he took up residency in Oscar de la Renta's studio. But even though Galliano's hand was evident in de la Renta's fashion show in February, Galliano remained behind the scenes. In fact, the Galliano image rehabilitation plans, Eric Wilson of The New York Times wrote, have been a quiet effort from the designer's friends like Anna Wintour and Condé Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse. He even has the support of the chairman of the Anti-Defamation League
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But even that hasn't been smooth. Galliano was photographed wearing what might have been a reference to Hasidic garb, and Jewish customers and retailers weren't happy with the prospect of Galliano lending a hand to de la Renta.
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Perhaps the biggest sign of how Galliano hasn't been accepted back into public at large is the uproar that ensued over his being invited to conduct a workshop at Parsons last month that was eventually cancelled. In the email from Parsons announcing the cancellation administrators wrote: "It was a condition of our agreeing to host Mr. Galliano that we also hold a larger forum, which would include a frank discussion of his career. Ultimately, an agreement could not be reached with Mr. Galliano regarding the details of that forum, and so the program will not move forward."
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We'll have to wait to see what comes of Galliano's interviews—Galliano's publicist told Maza that she hasn't "seen the article" and the TV appearance is still very much in the works—but it seems that he thinks its time to stop having others fight his battles. Two years perhaps might be enough time to make people think that he truly is sorry for drunkenly yelling "I love Hitler" and other slurs. Or maybe the two years mean that Galliano will never be able to cull public favor.
It's unclear when the Vanity Fair piece will run.
