Kanye's Favorite Fashion Label Hires a Noted Racist and Anti-Semite
Noted racist and anti-Semite John Galliano has officially come back to fashion. Maison Martin Margiela, the couture label that designed Kanye West's Yeezus tour wardrobe, confirmed today that Galliano will be its new creative director. Kanye himself first announced the news on Twitter.
JOHN GALLIANO is the new creative director of MARGIELA, I heard this rumor when I was in Paris and just received confirmation this morning!
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) October 6, 2014
Margiela was founded by designer Martin Margiela, who remained faceless until he retired in 2009 and famously believed that designers should let their work speak for itself. So it's a bit strange that parent company Only the Brave would pick Galliano, who criticized a woman's "dirty Jewish face" and called her partner an "Asian bastard" in a bar in 2011. Only the Brave president Rene Rosso called Galliano a "charismatic creative soul" in a statement today, which is one way to describe him.
Galliano got fired from his job as creative director of Dior in 2011, following two separate incidents in French bars where he hurled racist and anti-Semitic insults at patrons. He was convicted of spouting hate speech by a French court in 2011.
Galliano says he's an "alcohol-free J.G." now, so perhaps he'll buckle down and shut up when he's in public. His first collection for Margiela will debut at couture week in Paris in January.
[Photo via Only the Brave]