John Galliano

John Galliano

John Charles Galliano, Born on 28 November 1960 is a British couture designer originally from Gibraltar. He was born to Anita and Juan Galliano, and has two sisters. The family shifted to England since his father was in search of a job better than plumbing. At this time, John was six years old. They all settled in South London before moving to Brockley. John grew up in an austere Roman Catholic environment. Unfortunately, the family was so proper that even on visits to the local markets, his mother dressed him up in a formal way. Due to this, boys at his school bullied him. Galliano himself was different than the people in his house, the boy had artistic sensibilities.

John attended St. Anthony’s School and then joined Wilson’s Grammar School in London. Later, he studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art, graduating with a first-class honors in Fashion Design in 1988.

His inspiration for the his debut collection was the French Revolution and it was named Les Incroyables. This line was accompanied with a soundtrack by DJ Jeremy Healy. The range received critical acclaim and was re-designed to be sold at Browns, a fashion boutique in London. With this successful venture, he  established his own label together with Amanda Harlech, stylist at Harpers and Queen and Stephen Jones, a milliner.

In order to sustain his business in the initial years, Galliano took financial support from different people one after another. The list includes Johan Brun, Peder Bertelsen, Faycal Amor, Andre Leon Talley, Anna Wintour and so on.

Galliano relocated to Paris in order to find someone to finance his label and to make a strong clientele list. In 1989, his creations were shown at Paris Fashion Week for the first time. Within a year, his business conditions became worse and he went bankrupt because of a failure in London.

Galliano has helped other designers trying to achieve success, including Patrick Cox and Susannah Constantine. In 1991, he worked alongside Kylie Minogue to design costumes for her Let’s Get to It Tour.

In 1995, Galliano was appointed as the designer at Givenchy by Bernard Arnault. A year later, he moved to Christian Dior.

Between 2011 and 2012, the designer faced a controversy after Dior disclosed that Galliano has been suspended following his arrest after an anti-Semitic protest in a bar in Paris. A previous incident just like this happened in which Galliano was captured drunk in a video, abusing some Italian women and declaring his love for Hitler. Expressing such ideas in France is illegal. This news spread across the media before the start of Paris Fashion Week. The event was denied by the designer and he filed a defamation case against those who accused him of anti-semitism. Despite the scandal, Dior decided to provide financial aid Galliano’s brand. Soon the drama ended in a better way for the fashion designer.

In 2013, he returned to the fashion scene by accepting an invitation from Oscar de la Renta for a provisional residency at his studio. In an video interview, Galliano stated that he was content with the fact that he could create again and by amending his mistakes, he hopes to be forgiven and given a chance to prove himself again.