John Galliano

John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer born in Gibraltar.

He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior.

He went on to study at Central Saint Martins and graduated in 1984 with a first class honours degree in Fashion Design.

His graduating collection was inspired by the French Revolution and entitled Les Incroyables.

The collection received positive reviews and was bought in its entirety for resale in the London fashion boutique Browns.

This agreement ended in 1988 and he went bankrupt after his own London-based label failed.

In 1989, Galliano moved to Paris in search of financial backing and a strong client base.

Galliano secured the backing of Paris-based Moroccan designer Faycal Amor (owner and creative director of fashion label Plein Sud) who invited him to set up his base in Paris at the Plein Sud headquarters.

His first show was in 1989 as part of Paris Fashion Week.

Media fashion celebrity Susannah Constantine has worked for Galliano, and he has also aided the future success of other designers including shoe designer Patrick Cox.

In 1991, he collaborated with Kylie Minogue, designing the costumes for her Let's Get to It Tour.

In 1993, Galliano's financial agreement with Amor ended and he did not have a showing in October, missing the season.

With the help of American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley, then European correspondent at Vanity Fair, Galliano was introduced to Portuguese socialite and fashion patron São Schlumberger and financial backers of venture firm Arbela Inc, John Bult and Mark Rice.

It was through this partnership that Galliano received the financial backing and high society stamp needed to give him credibility in Paris.

This collection was important in the development of Galliano as a fashion house, and is regarded as a 'fashion moment' in high fashion circles.

Galliano was appointed head designer of Givenchy in 1995, thus becoming the first British designer to head a French haute couture house (if you don't count nineteenth century Charles Worth who arguably invented it).

Galliano then started his own eponymous label alongside long-term collaborators Amanda Harlech, at that time stylist with Harpers and Queen, and milliner Stephen Jones.

On the back of this success, Galliano rented studio space in London.

Initially, financial backing came from Johan Brun, and when this agreement came to an end, Danish entrepreneur Ole Peder Bertelsen, owner of firm Aguecheek, who were also backing Katharine Hamnett at the time, took over.

In July 1995, he was appointed as the designer of Givenchy by Bernard Arnault, owner of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.

On 21 January 1996, Galliano presented his first couture show at the helm of Givenchy at the Stade de France.

The collection received high praise within the fashion media.

Some of Galliano's designs for Givenchy were licensed to Vogue Patterns.

He was then moved to Dior by LVMH, and succeeded at Givenchy by Alexander McQueen.

In October 1996, LVMH moved Galliano to Christian Dior, replacing Italian designer Gianfranco Ferré.

At Dior, Galliano received widespread critical acclaim for his Haute Couture and ready-to-wear collections, for the whole duration of his tenure there.

Galliano designed the chinoiserie chartreuse gown worn by Nicole Kidman at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997.

In a 2004 poll for the BBC, he was named the fifth most influential person in British culture.

Galliano was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father of Italian descent, Juan Galliano, and a Spanish mother, Ana Galliano, and has two sisters.

His father worked as a plumber.

His family moved to England when Galliano was six, settling in Streatham and later Dulwich and Brockley, in South London.

He was raised in a strict Catholic family.

Galliano attended St. Anthony's Primary School, Dulwich and Wilson's Grammar School in London.

In 2010, Galliano identified his love of theatre and femininity as central to his creations; he said "my role is to seduce", and credited Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers as an influence.

In December 2010, a drunken Galliano insulted a group of Italian women in Paris with antisemitic slurs, which was caught on camera.

The video resurfaced in February 2011, just before Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2011/2012.

Facing public and legal scrutiny, he was fired from his role as creative director at Dior.

In 2013, a Guardian article describing Galliano's incident claims "fashion forgave John Galliano" due to his "two years' exile" and "several statements expressing his sorrow and self-disgust."

Since 2014, Galliano has been the creative director of Paris-based fashion house Maison Margiela.

Galliano has been named British Designer of the Year four times.