The Rehabilitation of John Galliano

With a new documentary and a public detente with LVMH, the British designer is finally being brought back in from the cold. Could a Met retrospective be not far off?

This weekend, the 50th Telluride Film Festival is unfurling in the Colorado Rockies, and on its slate is the world premiere of High & Low - John Galliano, a documentary by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, and produced in association with Condé Nast Entertainment, about the once-lauded British fashion designer who lost his job as creative director of Christian Dior in 2011 when he was arrested for a drunken anti-Semitic tirade at a Paris café.

Like my 2015 book, Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, the movie traces Galliano’s rocket-like career from his student years in London the early 1980s, through the early 2000s, when, as creative director of the Christian Dior, he reigned over Paris fashion like a mad king, to his spectacular implosion at cafe La Perle.

But, unlike my book, the British association We Are UK Film reports that the movie also tracks Galliano’s “journey for redemption,” which has led his to his current job as creative director of the small avant-garde brand Maison Martin Margiela, and the recent re-acceptance of his vintage designs on red carpets and in society.

Miley Cyrus in vintage Dior by Galliano.

As I will explain here, over the last few years, there appears to have been a methodically planned and discreetly executed inter-fashion campaign to un-cancel Galliano—because, in some circles outside of fashion, Galliano is still very canceled.