Designer John Galliano, who was sacked by fashion house Dior yesterday over allegedly racist comments he made in Paris, is to face trial, French prosecutors said today.
Prosecutors in Paris said today that the case could take place in the next three months, and Galliano could face up to six months in prison and up to €22,500 in fines if convicted.
The designer issued a statement today in which he apologised “unreservedly” for his behaviour “in causing any offence”.His sacking has shocked the fashion world and left vacant one of the industry's most powerful and high-profile positions.
"Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence," Galliano said in a statement issued through a British legal firm.
Galliano said he was "subjected to verbal harassment and an unprovoked assault when an individual tried to hit me with a chair having taken violent exception to my look and my clothing" during the altercation in a Parisian bar last week. "For these reasons I have commenced proceedings for defamation and the threats made against me," he added.
The British designer has been creative director of Dior for 15 years and is credited with energising the image and worldwide sales of the company, now worth $10 billion. He was due to present his autumn/winter collection for the fashion house on Friday, which may still go ahead without him. His own label collection, which is also backed by luxury empire Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, on Sunday, however, is in doubt.
Though Galliano is contesting the allegations, the release of a video taken in the same bar in the Marais in which he is filmed saying in a slurred voice, “I love Adolf Hitler”, provoked further damage.
Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano’s statement immediately after the incident condemning the designer’s remarks was followed by actor Natalie Portman, who is Jewish and the face of a Christian Dior fragrance, also disassociating herself yesterday from the designer saying she was “shocked and disgusted by the video”.
Galliano, always accompanied by a bodyguard in Paris, is known for the flamboyant theatricality of his catwalk creations. His appearance in various costumed attire at the end of his shows are spectacles in themselves.
Rumours circulating yesterday in Paris were that Italian designer Riccardo Tisci from Givenchy is hotly tipped to follow in Galliano’s wake, a bitter irony for Galliano who was with Givenchy before promotion to Dior in 1996.