Did John Galliano dress up as a Hasidic Jew?
Credit: Getty Images
Fashion can be confusing. Especially with New York Fashion Week happening for the last five days, there definitely have been some outfits that raised eyebrows.
John Galliano – as in the bad boy fashion designer who was caught on video proclaiming his love for Adolf Hitler and calling a woman a “dirty Jew face” in 2011 and subsequently fired as head designer for Christian Dior – was spotted in New York City dressed as what the New York Post describes as a Hasidic Jew.
The photo, which made made the front page of today’s Post, described his look as “long jacket, hat and curly peyos or sidelocks.”
“He’s trying to embarrass people in the Jewish community and make money on clothes [while] dressed like people he has insulted,” Williamsburg community leader Isaac Abraham told the Post. “It looks like the hairstyle he added was done purposely to insult.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) responded to today’s Post story saying the story was “a complete distortion” and “at worst a deliberate, malicious distortion,” and that Galliano is known for his eccentric attire. According to the ADL, this is just “John Galliano being John Galliano.”
ADL National Director, Abraham H. Foxman, issued the below statement:
The New York Post story is a ridiculous, absurd distortion. There is no truth to their accusation that John Galliano was dressed in Hasidic garb, and anyone familiar with the dress of traditional Orthodox Jews should not mistake what Galliano is wearing in the photograph as “Hasidic garb.” Hasidim do not wear fedora hats, pinstripe pants, blue jackets or an ascot tie.
This is John Galliano being John Galliano. His dress is always eccentric and his hair is always worn long. This is, a t the very least, ignorance on the part of the reporters and editors at the Post, or at worst, a deliberate malicious distortion in an effort to sell newspapers.
For the past year and a half, Mr. Galliano has been on a pilgrimage to learn from and grow from his mistakes. Now people are trying to distort and destroy him. He has spent hours with me and others in the European Jewish community, including rabbis, and Holocaust scholars, in an effort to better understand himself and to learn from his past mistakes. He is trying very hard to atone.”
Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant
