WHEN a snarling John Galliano spouted anti-Semitic and racist bile to a couple outside a bar in Paris, his lawyers attempted to silence the victims.
It was only thanks to The Sun publishing a video of an earlier outburst by the British fashion designer, where he told a woman he loved Hitler and talked about “people like you” being gassed, that the world got to see what he was really like in 2011.
But now a new documentary reveals that friends and colleagues had known for a long time that Galliano was capable of vile behaviour under the influence of drink and prescription drugs.
There are tales of him urinating on people in a nightclub and writhing naked in the lift of The Ritz Hotel for four hours.
The former creative director of elite French fashion house Dior admits to getting so smashed that he didn’t know what part of the country he was in.
Galliano realised he was slowly killing himself, but refused to go to rehab. It was, a film by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald shows, The Sun’s evidence of how low he’d sunk that forced the troubled designer to get help.
Afterwards he finally accepted he needed treatment for his alcoholism and slowly turned his life around.
Watching the anti-Semitic clip, Galliano admits: “Seeing yourself like that was most frightening. I can’t recognise that person. I felt horrified, ashamed, embarrassed.”
But with the 63-year-old designer from South London gradually being more and more accepted in the fashion world, questions remain about whether he truly understands the impact of anti-Semitism.
He insists that he’s not a racist, while one of his victims claims that Galliano has never apologised.
Macdonald, whose films include The Last King of Scotland and Touching The Void, attempts to piece together the reasons why the four time British Designer of the Year was so filled with hate.
Galliano’s showbiz pals, including Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Charlize Theron all speak on his behalf.
Born in the British territory of Gibraltar he moved to England when he was aged six with his Spanish mum Anita and dad Juan, who was of Italian descent.
The gay designer tells how his plumber father would beat him up if he showed any interest in young men.
He says: “Dad was very strict. I didn’t get on with him. I knew from a very early age I was gay. I would apply my mum’s make-up. It was done in secret.
“I do remember one day I made the comment ‘he looks really gorgeous’. There was a good beating and expletives.”
When he arrived at St Martin’s College in London to study fashion Galliano was considered to be “shy” by his friends.
A French revolution themed graduation show in 1984 marked him out as one to watch and he continued to grab attention with even more outlandish ideas.
The following year his catwalk models threw dead fish at the audience and at another show Galliano poured water on the models’ clothes so that their most intimate parts were visible.
Kate Moss, whose modelling career began in 1988, remembers him teaching her how to strut her stuff in a provocative way.
She recalls: “He said ‘so you’re a Lolita and you’re a girl from Croydon and you’ve never been f***ed and you really want it.’
“I was nervous just walking, let alone playing a character. John was my friend. I felt part of his family.”
Galliano was perceived to have a punk rock spirit, even though he happily met Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and wasn’t political.
With his own collections struggling to turn a profit and financial backers dropping out, he finally caught a break in 1995 when the luxury brand Givenchy hired him as their main designer.
A year later he made the step up to Dior, with Alexander McQueen replacing him at Givenchy.
But like fellow South Londoner McQueen, the pressure of constantly turning out new clothes became too much.
I would have a conversation with a water pipe, I could understand what that water pipe was saying. I was committing suicide slowly
John Galliano
Galliano says: “There was a demand for more collections. I had to keep feeding this monster. It was just work, it was all consuming. I became obsessed.
“After every single show there was a huge void you would drop down. After the show I would just want to escape, drinking for days. I was in denial but I am an alcoholic.”
When his dad died in 2003, Galliano wasn’t given time off to grieve.
Instead Dior hired a private jet so that he could attend the funeral in London and return to Paris the same day to continue with preparations for a show.
In 2007 his right-hand man Steven Robinson died aged 38 from a massive cocaine overdose and three years later McQueen killed himself.
It was a fate Galliano, who was mixing booze with prescription drugs such as valium, feared for himself.
Talking about McQueen’s death aged just 40, he says: “I could relate to that. Towards the end I just wanted the voices to end.
“I would have a conversation with a water pipe, I could understand what that water pipe was saying. I was committing suicide slowly.”
His former secretary claims that she was sacked after telling Galliano’s bosses that they needed to send him to rehab.
The House of Dior say they offered a six month sabbatical to their star designer, but he can’t remember that conversation.
His wild behaviour was increasingly difficult to contain.
Fashion journalist Tim Blanks claims: “We used to go to clubs, I remember John standing on stage one night and I remember him p**sing on everybody, he was so off it, I just thought this guy’s so unhappy.”
Later DJ Jeremy Healy was informed that Galliano was banned from 20 hotels in London for causing mayhem.
Jeremy says that staff at The Ritz, one of the capital’s poshest hotels, told him “he was in a lift with no clothes on for four hours. He was saying he was a lion and he was growling at the guests.”
I believe he’s a racist. He’s never apologised to me
Philippe Virgitti
It was a French couple called Géraldine Bloch and Philippe Virgitti who took a stand against Galliano’s offensive actions in February 2011.
They were outside a bar called La Perle in Paris when Galliano, who they did not recognise, told Philippe “f***ing Asian bastard, I'll kill you” and Geraldine “dirty Jewish face, you should be dead”.
They reported the incident to the police, with anti-Semitism being a criminal offence in France.
Galliano responded by getting his lawyers to launch a defamation case against the couple, resulting in them becoming even more frightened.
Fortunately, for them four days later The Sun published its footage of an earlier, similar incident which proved what he was really like.
When a woman asked the clearly drunk designer “are you blond?” he replied “No. But I love Hitler. People like you would be dead today. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f***ing gassed, and f***ing dead.”
At Galliano’s trial, Philippe told the jury that he didn’t think the designer was racist, but he was found guilty and fined £5,000.
Now Philippe has changed his mind.
He tells Kevin: “I believe he’s a racist. He’s never apologised to me.”
This is a person I had grown up with, that I loved. I wasn’t going to see him go down that way
Naomi Campbell
Dior's chief executive Sidney Toledano, who is Jewish, was also disappointed that it took Galliano seven years to apologise to him for his anti-Semitism.
And in 2013 the designer was photographed dressed in a similar style to Jews, with a Hasidic style hat and long curled locks.
But Galliano tells the film’s director that he does not hate people of other religions or ethnic backgrounds and doesn’t remember his drunken racist rants.
He adds: “Immigrant, I am one, I was one.”
Certainly, the fashion world seems to have forgiven him.
Kate Moss asked him to make her wedding dress in 2011 and fellow supermodel Naomi Campbell says she’s never watched the notorious video.
She comments: “This is a person I had grown up with, that I loved. I wasn’t going to see him go down that way.
“I didn’t watch the video because I know him, I didn’t need to watch that video”
Charlize explains that while Galliano’s behaviour can’t be excused, we do need to understand how terrible alcoholism can be.
He was given a job by the late Oscar de la Renta in 2014 and shortly afterwards became a creative director for the high-end French brand Maison Margiela.
In January Oscar-nominated director Baz Luhrmann made a short film for Galliano’s Margiela show in Paris.
The half an hour catwalk performance, which included Star Wars actress Gwendoline Christie in a corset and models revealing fake pubic hair, went viral.
With his workplace redemption seemingly secured, it is unclear why he needed to explain his anti-Semitic outburst in a film.
But it does suggest that he’s facing up to his demons.
High and Low: John Galliano is in cinemas now
