A Second Chance for Galliano?

From: NY Times
Link: http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/a-second-chance-for-galliano/?ref=fashion

At the women’s fall shows in March, John Galliano’s arrest and dismissal from Dior dominated the week. Now the spring men’s collections are under way, and though Mr. Galliano, looking thin and barely audible, was on trial Thursday, there was virtually no discussion in the front row about him or the racial-insult case.
One reason is that the editors and writers who cover men’s wear are less familiar with Mr. Galliano than those on the women’s side. True, the Galliano brand sells men’s clothing — and a show by the design team will be presented tonight — but he is best known for his women’s fashion at Dior, which transformed a decidedly stodgy French label.
Those years — I am talking about the end of the ’90s and beginning of the 2000s — were truly calamitous. Mr. Galliano did everything to upset the status quo, and he succeeded. His bosses at Dior were delighted, and Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, took pride in Mr. Galliano’s creative excesses. He seemed to understand creativity.
What people in the French court saw on Thursday was a broken man of 50. “I have addictions, I am recovering from addictions, and I am still in treatment,” Mr. Galliano told the panel of judges. After viewing a video of his behavior in a Paris café, he said, “It’s the shell of John Galliano.” He attributed his substance abuse to work pressures.
Nothing about this affair has ever felt right — not his abusive comments, not his self-destructive behavior, not the way he was dismissed. Of course, Dior had no choice but to dismiss him, but if Mr. Galliano’s dependency on prescription drugs was so severe, then surely LVMH executives must have had concerns long before his behavior created a problem. I know that Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Dior, urged Mr. Galliano to seek medical help. Mr. Toledano is a decent man. Yet I can’t help but feel that Mr. Galliano’s problems were not sufficiently addressed, nor their potential liability faced, and that something like a status quo existed. His personality and showmanship were definitely part of Dior’s success, and maybe there was a fear of meddling with it.
On Thursday, I ran into a number of executives who work with LVMH, and they would speak only on the condition of anonymity because of their close dealings. One individual said there had been casual discussions among LVMH executives about the feasibility of Mr. Galliano returning to his own label. Would the media and the public accept his return? This individual said he thought so. Another executive with whom I spoke had the same view. He cited the appeal of Mr. Galliano’s ultrafeminine fashion and added that in recent years the designer had lost touch with that sensibility (and indeed reality). “It became a kind of Lady Gaga show, and he’s more talented than this,” the executive said.
Such opinions may be the leading edge of what in time will be the rehabilitation of Mr. Galliano’s career. I hope he continues to get treatment. He should have a second chance.