Except, at the moment

John Galliano, famous firebrand at Givenchy in 1995 and then head designer at the house of Christian Dior is a fashion icon in his own right, caught up in his own drunken stupidity.

The things he said and were recorded back in December in a Paris Café were reprehensible and they won’t be replayed here. We have YouTube for all that.

He’s lost his job for this, too, and he should have. But it remains to be seen if he becomes a Mel Gibson with a permanent tarnish or if he shakes this off and launches his own house, no doubt to be influential in the fashion seasons ahead. He is a kind of warped genius.

I’m the first to say I’m relieved and very grateful things I’ve said and done when totally smashed have not ended up in global distribution. You don’t have to be anti-semitic to have dumb-ass moments like that. The fact is humans are flawed, alcohol loosens tongues and this will probably always be so. People say dumb and ugly things.

But this kind of thing used to pass without notice, lost in the moment with no record of any kind and setting up at worst a “he said/they said” situation in the paper press the next day. Not anymore.

Digital tech has changed all that. Say something ugly and within minutes, the whole world will know. I’ve long believed the world becomes a better place when we are all held a little bit more accountable to our actions and our words.

Welcome to our little-bit better world. 

Except, at the moment, if you are John Galliano.

All images stolen from the web and reused without permission or attribution