March 14, Rhonda Garelick, distinguished professor of English and Journalism at SMU Dallas, for a commentary about a John Galliano documentary that depicts his struggles and attempts at redemption as a fashion icon. Published in Garelick’s New York Times ‘Face Forward’ column under the heading The Conflict at the Heart of the Galliano Documentary: https://tinyurl.com/262xbprh
What moral lapses should genius be permitted? John Galliano, self-styled bad boy of fashion, seemed determined to find out.
He was a fashion-world Icarus: a prodigious talent who soared high, then crashed to earth in 2011, losing his reputation and his position as creative director of Dior, after a series of highly publicized drunken, racist and antisemitic tirades. He would rise again, but the path back was steep.
The aptly titled “High & Low: John Galliano,” directed by Kevin Macdonald, chronicles this roller coaster of a career, while exposing some of the less beautiful side of the fashion industry — the toll it exacts from even those it most glorifies.
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