High & Low: John Galliano

[Manhattan]

An interesting documentary available on Prime and Mubi. 
Galliano is one of the all-time great designers, whose career fell apart after it was revealed that he made vicious anti-Semitic comments (to non-Jews) on more than one occasion. 
The doc does a good job charting his meteoric rise and showcases his talent well. It also reveals the  usual problems associated with his kind of fame - too much work, too much alcohol, too many drugs, too much ego. His career has never really recovered. 
I wish our society could get over its fetish for destroying talent. He’s a couturier, not a diplomat. He may be a drunk and a jerk and a racist, but genius should come first. I came away from the documentary thinking that re-education is more damaging to culture than hate speech. 

[+ nycman]

I always found his "style" to be more messy than chic. To the point that I’ve never really cared for most of his work. Nonetheless, there were certainly flashes of genius during his time at Dior. Clearly people in the fashion industry still adore him. 

Unfortunately, the court of public opinion is extremely harsh. Personally, I side more with "let he who has not sinned cast the first stone". I agree that drugs, alcohol, exhaustion, and ego all played a part in those fateful encounters. I also think those confrontations saved his life. More than just apologize to the people he insulted, he needs to thank them.

Thank you for pointing out this documentary. I hadn’t seen it before. I felt it was balanced without giving him an easy pass for his abhorrent behavior. If you watch it, be sure to turn on the subtitles. Many of the key players speak mostly in French. At the end of the day, I do feel he deserves forgiveness. Not because he’s a genius, but because he’s human. 

[scrtlovr]

After seeing this doc. I felt that he is too much of a narcissist to be anti (or pro) anything. As someone in the piece suggested his antisemitic rants most likely came from some deeply rooted ultra catholic/spanish prejudice that he grew up with but was probably not deeply felt. I also think he deserves forgiveness, but ironically I believe that without that incident he would probably have died of an overdose or had a massive stroke as he was clearly burning the candle from both ends. That short "exile" forced him to slow down . . .