Terrible idea or major coup? Galliano’s Zara collection launches after Met controversy

A month after it was announced that a planned exhibition dedicated to fashion designer John Galliano at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art would not proceed, his debut collection for fast fashion company Zara has been released.

Called Re{form}, it was, according to a press release, “authored by the couturier John Galliano. Built from our memory. Made for now.”

Its launch in shops comes after controversy over plans to honour the former Dior designer, who was found guilty of a hate crime in 2011 after a series of racist and antisemitic rants, with an exhibition of his work at the Met and a corresponding Met gala – a juggernaut of popular culture viewed by billions globally online. The exhibition was cancelled but had it gone ahead, it would have been only the third time such an honour had been bestowed on a living designer. The only others being Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 2017.

A young John Galliano, pictured in 1986. Photograph: E Hamilton West/The Guardian

The backlash to the plans were vehement and widespread, with Met patrons, New York politicians and prominent Jewish leaders objecting. Writing in the New York Times, his biographer Dana Thomas labelled it a “terrible idea”, saying that “choosing this moment to glorify the life’s work of someone who was convicted of making antisemitic remarks … is downright bizarre”, and noting that “his infamous antisemitic rants were not an aberration”.

In other quarters in the fashion industry, not least in Anna Wintour’s corner, support for Galliano has been similarly full-throated. Many argue he has sufficiently atoned for his crimes. Others point out that it has been 15 years since Galliano, who was struggling with addiction at the time, committed them and that there ought to come a time for forgiveness.</p

本文の著作権はThe Guardianにあります。