Fashion designer John Galliano was arrested for an altercation with museum curator Geraldine Bloch at a Paris cafe during which he called her an ‘ugly, disgusting whore’ with a ‘dirty Jew face’ and no dress sense.
“I guess that's Dior off my shopping list. They need to fire him!” says ChabadGirl, who contributed this bizarre titbit from the UK MailOnline
British fashion designer John Galliano allegedly grabbed a respected art historian’s hair and called her an ‘ugly, disgusting whore’ with a ‘dirty Jew face’ and no dress sense during an unprovoked attack in a Paris café last Thursday night.
Curator Geraldine Bloch, 35, has told officers investigating the alleged assault that the designer, who is close friends with celebrities including Madonna and Kylie Minogue, insulted every aspect of her looks, from her ‘ugly eyebrows’ to her ‘cheap thigh boots’.
During the incident, which has seen Mr Galliano arrested and suspended from his job as chief designer at Christian Dior, Ms Bloch claimed he even threatened to kill her boyfriend, receptionist Philippe Virgitti, 41.
She has claimed Galliano concluded his tirade with: ‘I am the designer John Galliano!’ while striking the trademark ‘rock star’ pose with which he often ends his couture shows.
Details of the alleged incident emerged in French newspaper Le Figaro which claims to have seen police statements taken from the couple.
It came as Mr Galliano launched legal action against Ms Bloch, who is French, and Mr Virgitti, of Asian background, for defamation, after Dior made the decision to suspend him during the police investigation.
The alleged attack took place last Thursday night in La Perle, in the Marais district. There were ‘dozens’ of witnesses to the violence, which started soon after 9pm after Mr Galliano had reportedly drunk the alcoholic equivalent of two bottles of red wine.
It has been claimed Mr Galliano, 50, grabbed Ms Bloch, who is head of exhibitions at Paris’s Institute of the Arab World, by her hair and shouted: ‘Dirty Jew face, you should be dead,’ adding ‘shut your mouth, dirty bitch, I can’t stand your dirty whore voice.’
According to police documents, he then turned his anger on Mr Virgitti, and screamed: ‘******* Asian bastard, I’ll kill you!’
Ms Bloch continued to scream frantically, but Galliano allegedly told her: ‘You’re so ugly I can’t bear looking at you. You’re wearing cheap boots, cheap thigh boots. You’ve got no hair, your eyebrows are ugly, you’re ugly, you’re nothing but a whore.’
Born in Gibraltar and raised in South London, Mr Galliano lives in Paris and boasts fans including Kate Moss, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Natalie Portman and Rihanna.
Mr Zerbib, Mr Galliano’s lawyer, denied his client had made racist comments, and confirmed he had launched libel proceedings against his accusers on Friday night.
But Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano said: ‘Dior affirms with the utmost conviction its policy of zero tolerance towards any anti-Semitic or racist words or behaviour. Pending the results of the inquiry, Christian Dior has suspended John Galliano from his responsibilities.’
A Paris police spokesman confirmed all details of the allegations against Mr Galliano, and said he was facing criminal charges.
This piece was from Liz Jones in the MailOnline’s fashion section:
John Galliano: was the allegedly anti-Semitic, anti-women, drunken rant outside a Paris cafe an accident waiting to happen?
I last saw John Galliano after his couture show for Dior in Paris. Unlike most designers after a show, even the superstar likes of Giorgio Armani, who will mingle with models, make-up artists, photographers and fashion critics, Galliano was shut in a room, behind closed doors. A polite, orderly queue was outside the door, kept in line by huge, handsome bouncers in immaculate black suits, wielding walkie talkies.
What do they think we are going to do to the designer, probably the most well paid, highly regarded in the world, who has been chosen to design the wedding dress for Kate Moss? Stab him with our stilettos? We were allowed into his presence one by one, then ushered away, after about a minute. The ceremony, the amount of care and security around Galliano, who was born in Gibraltar but grew up in London, is as though he were president of the United States, not a handbag designer.
When I interviewed him at the exquisite Dior HQ in Paris, there was a PR person present, just in case my line of questioning strayed from the agreed topics. Galliano reminded me of Yves Saint Laurent: desperately shy. But maybe this is an act. He is prone to depression, too, and told me he marks out on his calendar blocks in black, the days when he can hardly get out of bed. He is addicted to the gym, certainly, but told me he was free from drugs and alcohol.
The trouble with Galliano (and with Alexander McQueen, the designer who committed suicide almost exactly a year ago), is that in the world of fashion, he is surrounded by people who are scared of him, who cannot say no, or even that something is less than perfect. In fashion, unlike in politics, or cinema, or the world of books, if you are anything less than sycophantic, you are banished. This is dangerous, a world where you are never called to account. After my interview was published, John sent me roses, a bunch as large as a hippo, with inside out petals. The rich, blood red colour was on the inside, the soft, velvet interior on the outside.
This is what fashion at the level Galliano is working at, producing between 10 and 12 collections a year (which is probably four times what Christian Dior would have had to produce), is all about: ever more extremes of luxury, because there is nowhere else left to go. No wonder he might have felt to need to blow a gasket, not that that is any excuse. He has been suspended, his autumn/winter collection, due to be unveiled in Paris in only a few days' time, is now in jeopardy.
This is a PR disaster for Dior, although of course, in the bitchy world of fashion, the knives are already out, with insiders saying the brand had been itching to get rid of him. I doubt that, as Galliano has increased sales a hundredfold in his almost 15 years at the brand. His collection for Dior's 60th anniversary, held in the Orangerie at Versailles, was the most beautiful I have ever seen. It will be shame if that mercurial temper has, finally, tripped him up.
Galliano with model Kate Moss.jpg
