John Galliano Returning to New York Fashion Week?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone wax as poetic about fashion as my girlfriend, on the announcement that John Galliano would be returning to fashion thanks to the patronage of Oscar de la Renta.
“It’s just when someone is that talented … it’s such a shame. John Galliano was bold, adventurous, humorous. Fashion takes itself so seriously sometimes, and he was the exact opposite of that. Playful, brilliant … he sort of had it all.”
If you’ve ever seen the video that got him into trouble in the first place, anyone can agree it’s not pretty.
The revelation that Galliano is treating himself for alcoholism sheds light on the situation to anyone familiar with the disease. Alcoholism has a funny way of bringing out the darkest parts of a person’s character, sabotaging the better parts with a ruthless efficiency.
Although the saying “in vino veritas” (“in wine, truth”) always applies to a degree, the active alcoholic seems to always be subject first to a punishing self-hate.
And it’s this self-hate that propels the alcoholic to try and dream up the most obnoxious words possible, as if to say: “Think you like me? Think again.”
I don’t claim to be an expert on this problem, or a practicing psychologist. Although I do have various family members in the ground as testimony.
To pepper you with some parting clichés (because everyone loves those): “Ask for mercy, not justice.” “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.”
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