A month after the cancellation of a planned exhibition dedicated to fashion designer John Galliano at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, his debut collection for fast fashion retailer Zara has been released. The collection, titled Re{form}, was described in a press release as "authored by the couturier John Galliano. Built from our memory. Made for now."
Background on the Controversy
The launch comes in the wake of significant backlash regarding plans to honor Galliano, who was found guilty of a hate crime in 2011 due to a series of racist and antisemitic rants. The exhibition at the Met would have marked only the third time a living designer received such an honor, following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 2017. However, the plans faced vehement objections from Met patrons, New York politicians, and prominent Jewish leaders.
Dana Thomas, Galliano's biographer, criticized the exhibition in the New York Times, calling it a "terrible idea" and stating that "choosing this moment to glorify the life’s work of someone who was convicted of making antisemitic remarks … is downright bizarre."
Mixed Reactions in the Fashion Industry
Despite the backlash, some in the fashion industry, including Anna Wintour, have expressed support for Galliano, arguing that he has sufficiently atoned for his past. Galliano himself acknowledged his past mistakes, stating, "I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry for it."
