John Galliano steps out at New York Fashion Week in Hasidic costume

Nathalie Atkinson | Feb 13, 2013 12:25 PM ET | Last Updated: Feb 13, 2013 1:44 PM ET
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Pascal le Segretain/Getty Images     John Galliano steps out during New York fashion week in Hasidic attire.

 

Is John Galliano’s latest get-up a costume too far? The fashion designer stepped out in New York on Tuesday wearing a Homburg and long dark overcoat with hair styled into long curled ear locks that recalled, perhaps all too literally, the Orthodox elements of traditional Hasidic Jewish garb. This, two years after Galliano was fired from Christian Dior and convicted of uttering Anti-Semitic hate speech in France and seemed contrite on the road to amends and forgiveness.

As reported in January, respected designer Oscar de la Renta welcomed Galliano to an informal residency at his New York studio for the weeks leading up to New York Fashion Week. De la Renta’s Fall 2013 collection, shown on Tuesday, certainly had touches and elements of Galliano signatures, such as the baroque styling flourishes on gowns and the draping and tucking at the waist, the styling with belts and the slicked wet hairstyle on models.

The fashion press is atwitter about both Galliano’s Hasid garb and the question of whether he is being primed to be de la Renta’s eventual successor (despite the fact that the designer himself brought this up a month ago in WWD, and dismissed the notion out of hand). It was thought that Galliano was testing the waters for some sort of comeback.

Galliano has always had a flair for the dramatic, not only in his elaborately themed runway presentations while at Dior but with his personal choice of outfits. He often takes dress-up into the land of costume, often appearing for his fashion week bow in garb evoking a prince, an astronaut, a top hatted ringmaster or a swashbuckling pirate.

For now, the New York Post argues that Galliano’s Hasid look was intended as respectful homage. That wouldn’t be without precedent, since this sort of questionable sign of respect has certainly been done before: Beloved American screen icon Fred Astaire performed in blackface, in the dubious “Bojangles in Harlem” solo of the 1936 film Swing Time that many today still find offensively racist.
Galliano’s acceptance back into the fashion industry might have gone off without a hitch – and who knows, may yet – but for this latest sidewalk sideshow. The Post also cites sources who suggest Galliano’s next move may be teaching fashion at a major school, such as Central Saint Martins. Those who can, do; those who have been disgraced, teach?