John Galliano- this seasons fashion faux pas! Sent out the "Dior" and headed to rehab?

Being an apparel merchandising major here at IU, I wanted to blog about the latest John Galliano scandal which combines the high end fashion world with Judaism, one unlikely match. I wanted to approach this story from two ends to get an opinion from someone who is identified as being Jewish and someone who just reported about the topic to write an article for a newspaper. I looked at the "Fashion & Style" section of the New York Times magazine online where they had an article titled, "Dior Fires John Galliano After Biogtry  Complaints." The article discusses the video that surfaced with Galliano drunkenly making anti-Semitic remarks at a restaurant in Paris and discusses how Dior and its parent brand LVMH had to act quickly to defends the brands integrity and reputation since what was said by Galliano are words that strongly go against values Dior has defended for years. I watched the video on Youtube that was posted from a CNN News show. He speaks in a slurred voice saying, "I love Hitler" and "people like you would be dead, your mother and your forefathers would f***ing gass and f***ing dead." They also recount the reaction from Natalie Portman who recently signed a deal with Dior for its Miss Dior Cherie perfume. She claims to be disgusted and surprised by the things he has said and will no longer be supportive or associated with the designer in anyway. In addition, Portman chose to wear a gown from Rodarte instead of Galliano for the Academy Awards. The designer is still denying that he has made any anti-Semitic comments and submitted testimonials from employees and witnesses to try and disprove the complaints that were filed. In addition, some people are encouraging John to head to rehab for his alcoholism to try and excuses his actions. However, alcoholic or not, Galliano is now fired and could be facing $31,000 in fines and up to six months in prison but Dior plans to go through with his 2011-2012 collection. 

Next, I looked on jpost.com to see if the content or attitude of the article differed from the one published in the New York Times. There was an article about Galliano in the "International" section but it was less detailed then the one I had read before but when I searched "Galliano" on the website, multiple articles came up. The article I looked at next was called, "Disgraced Galliano said to have claimed 'Jewish roots'" and had pretty much the same information that I had just seen but they included speculation of the history of Christian Dior's collaboration with the Nazis. According to the German and British press when Dior was alive he designed clothing for the wives and mistresses of leading Nazi's. As mentioned above, the company released statements reassuring the public that what Galliano said is not what Dior promotes but they have said nothing about the Nazi history of its founder. Considering that both of the articles I looked at came from published places there was little room for opinion and they both just gave pretty basic information about the situation. I was curious about the area that bar this took place at was in and found an article on express.co.uk which had an article under world news called, "Paris and its Dedicated Followers of a New-Found Fashion for Anti-Semitism" This talks about France and the bar Galliano was at, and how it has become a spot for people who hate Jews to congregate at. One would not typically expect behavior from a neighborhood like this one because it is wealthy with nice houses where important and famous people often go. People have reported anti-Semitic songs, the yelling 'Seig hail!' 'Seig hail' and even Nazi salutes outside of the front door. 
Although this is illegal in France, these people do not seem to care and there according to the Jewish Community protection service, anti-Semitism has grown since 2000 to about 500 attacks per year. Why anti-Semitism has become "fashionable" anywhere is beyond me and the entire Galliano dispute has brought much attention to the fashion world and Judaism everywhere. I am interested to see how it will effect our society in the future and if anything will change because of this huge public happening that has become a priority for such a huge industry and has forced them to take action and make changes.