The Beautiful and the Damned

John Galliano is the rarest of things: a Sacred Monster in 2024.

Bonjour à tous et à toutes!

I am excited to announce an in-person Sacred Monster event in Los Angeles happening Wednesday, September 4th at the Philosophical Research Society. For more information and tickets, head to the link here. I can’t wait to see you there!

John Galliano, 1987, by John Stoddart.

I can always tell which one is one of his. 

Not by the cut, quality of the fabric or tag. Rather, there’s always a certain gravity to one of his pieces, an aura unmistakable which sets them apart from the rest on any given rail. To say the name of its creator is to utter his name with such reverence, it doesn’t matter what the garment looks like: all that matters is it’s one of his. 

And what of the clothes! Brilliant, beautiful, bias-cut. To pour yourself into one of his dresses is to assume the form of your most sensual self. There may very well be sorcery built into the patterns. 

But to wear his clothing is to also acknowledge an inherent ugliness that the act of wearing them connotes; that you know of his disgrace, of the rot that lives beneath the beauty of the garment like a putrid base note to an otherwise alluring perfume, and go ahead anyway. 

I am, of course, referring to the groundbreaking, legendary, and scandalous fashion designer John Galliano, who may very well be the sole living embodiment of Sacred Monstrosity that we have today. 

To refresh your memory, Galliano is the visionary fashion designer who, throughout his legendary career, helmed his namesake line; Givenchy; Christian Dior; and today, Maison Martin Margiela. His impact and influence on fashion – both in the practice of it as an art, as well as business – is immeasurable. His designs sell on the second-hand and vintage market for prices well into the tens of thousands, depending on the piece; they’re simply that iconic, that good. 

However, Galliano, for all of his undeniable sacredness, is undeniably monstrous. The heinous end of his tenure at the house of Dior remains indelible in the minds of fashion connoisseurs everywhere. In February 2011, videos of a clearly intoxicated Galliano were leaked, wherein he slurs his way through various instances of hate speech (of which he was later convicted in French court). Of many unconscionable things said, “I love Hitler [...] People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed” remains the nadir of his life’s story.

John Galliano was born Juan-Carlos Antonio Galliano-Guillén in Gibraltar to Spanish-Italian parents; the family headed to England when he was six years old. Galliano has said that he always was attracted to beautiful people and things, and knew he was gay from a young age. He suffered punishment from his father for displaying effeminate behavior. 

Galliano graduated from London’s prestigious Central Saint Martins in 1984. His graduation collection, inspired by the French Revolution, was called “Les Incroyables”. He was a near-instant success.