John Galliano

One of fashion’s most controversial and creative talents, John Galliano made his much-anticipated return to fashion, following his appointment as creative director of Maison Margiela . Galliano currently oversees the design of all Margiela lines, including couture and women’s ready-to-wear. He debuted his first designs for the house during Paris Couture Week in January 2015.

“Margiela is ready for a new charismatic creative soul,” said Renzo Rosso , president of OTB, in a statement. “John Galliano is one of the greatest, undisputed talents of all time. A unique, exceptional couturier for a Maison that always challenged and innovated the world of fashion. I look forward to his return to create that fashion dream that only he can create, and wish him to here find his new home.”

Galliano fell from the highest echelons of the fashion establishment, as creative director of Dior in 2011, following his conviction for making anti-Semitic remarks while inebriated.

After attending St Anthony's School and Wilson's Grammar School in London, Galliano studied at Central Saint Martins, from which he graduated in 1988. His first collection, inspired by the French Revolution and entitled Les Incroyables, was bought in its entirety for sale in the London’s Browns boutique. Galliano quickly started his own fashion label and began work with long-term collaborator Amanda Harlech, at the time a fashion editor for Harper’s and Queen.

Following a number of false starts with regards to agreements with financial backers, Galliano relocated to Paris to put on his first show as part of Paris Fashion Week in 1989. By 1990, he was bankrupt, and with London offering little by way of relief, the designer permanently relocated to Paris.

Galliano’s inability to find a secure and permanent financial backer finally came to an end with the help of American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley, then European Correspondent at Vanity Fair. Unable to pay to put on his Spring/Summer 1993 show, Talley asked socialite São Schlumberger to lend her 18th-century hôtel particulier for the show. Wintour and Talley arranged financing with the Paine Webber banking group. The collection that followed, dubbed Princess Lucretia, received rave reviews. The New Yorker reported Diane von Furstenberg called it “a watershed moment in modern fashion history.”

Bernard Arnault appointed Galliano as the head designer of Givenchy in 1995; the appointment made Galliano the first British designer to head a French haute couture house. In October 1996, LVMH moved Galliano to Dior. In 1997 the CFDA named him international designer of the year. He was named British Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 1987, 1994, 1995, 1997. The bias cut, the Nefertiti couture collection, the saddlebag — under Galliano, Dior would dominate fashion reporting thanks to the spectacle of his shows and the commerciality of his creations.

Following the publication of recordings of Galliano making anti-Semitic remarks, made in June and December 2010, Galliano was sentenced to pay a total of €6,000 ($8,400) in suspended fines in September 2011 after a French court found him guilty of giving public insults on account of race. Galliano retired from the public in order to deal with addiction problems.

In early 2013, following his rehabilitation for alcohol and substance abuse, Galliano accepted an invitation from Oscar de la Renta for a temporary residency at de la Renta's design studio for the Autumn/Winter 2013 season. Galliano ended his first television interview since his conviction saying, "I am able to create. I am ready to create...[and] I hope through my atonement I'll be given a second chance.

As Maison Margiela's creative director he has successfully established a daring new identity for the brand’s Artisanal and Women's 'Défilé' collections.