Yesterday, a French labour court ruled that Christian Dior SA and John Galliano SA did not unfairly sack former employee John Galliano. In 2011, Galliano was dismissed from his roles at both labelsafter a highly publicized anti-Semitic attack. According to WWD, Galliano’s claims that his employers were aware of his addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol – and were therefore complicit in his condition – were rejected at a hearing on Tuesday. Galliano was reportedly seeking between 2.4 million to roughly 13 million Euros.
John Galliano Back in 2008, credit: Getty
Reading from a statement during the two hour hearing, Galliano said, ‘The two companies were fully aware of my state. I took Valium so I could get through fittings.’ The designer went on to blame the pressures of working for both companies for his descent into addiction.
He went on to say, "I can't let the 17 years I spent and enjoyed at Dior be blackened like this. During these years as creative director of this house, I did not realize that its success, multiplying its sales by four, came at a destructive and exorbitant cost: my physical and mental health. Always more work, always more obligations, always more pressure, a dangerous and pathological spiral, without control."
John Galliano and Kate Moss in 2010, credit: Getty
Galliano was instructed to pay each winning party €1 in damages. While he may not have won his lawsuit, his future looks bright after news of his appointment as creative director of Maison Martin Margiela was announced last month.