Galliano's gong loss: Fashion designer stripped of award over racism conviction
Fashion designer John Galliano has been stripped of France’s highest civilian award because of his conviction for racism, it emerged yesterday.
French president Francois Hollande revoked his Legion d’Honneur almost a year after he was fined £5,000 and sacked from his job as artistic boss of the Dior fashion house for anti-Semitic rants in his local Paris bar.
A trial was told how Galliano, 51, berated museum curator Geraldine Bloch for being Jewish and subjected her friend of South African origin to vile racist abuse.
In a third incident, the court was shown an amateur video of him declaring his love for Adolf Hitler and referring to Jewish people being gassed in concentration camps.
Galliano claimed at the time that he had no memory of the rants and denied he was a racist.
But he also admitted making the comments in 2010 and subsequently apologised, blaming twin addictions to drugs and alcohol.
He told the court: “They are not views I hold or believe in.
"I apologise for the sadness this affair has caused.”
The fashion designer, originally of Gibraltar, has kept a low profile since the conviction.
But some reports say he is considering a full-time move to Los Angeles.
The Legion d’Honneur is given to people judged to have served France or the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity which serve as the country’s motto.
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