Defending Galliano – When Silence is Golden

The original news story passed me by (My thanks to Modernity for drawing this to my attention) but better late than never.



I could not believe that American stylist Patricia Field (That’s her above looking tres chic!) would describe Galliano’s anti Semitic rant as a piece of theatre but that is exactly what she did:

In a phone interview last week, Field/ described Galliano’s controversial videotaped behaviour as “farce” and said she was bewildered that people in the fashion community have not recognized it as such.

“People in fashion all they do is go and see John Galliano theater every season. That’s what he gives them. To me, this was the same except it wasn’t in a theater or in a movie…John lives in theater. It’s theater. It’s farce. But people in fashion don’t recognize the farce in it. All of a sudden they don’t know him. But it’s OK when it’s Mel Brooks’ ‘The Producers’ singing Springtime for Hitler.”

Field said Galliano was “acting out a character.” She said she can not understand how people who come to his shows and are entertained by him season after season don’t recognize that the recent incidents were another form of theater.

“They don’t even see the farce in it. Fashion people who know him have not come forward. They know his theater,”

Ben Franklin may or may not have said “Tis far better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”. Perhaps Patricia Field could have done well to ponder this phrase before opening her mouth in defence of Galliano.