Galliano fails to show as Dior presents collection

CELEBRITIES stayed away and designer John Galliano was nowhere to be seen as Christian Dior displayed its highly anticipated autumn/winter 2011-12 ready-to-wear show at Paris fashion week.

Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano made a statement on the catwalk before the show lamenting the “deeply painful” situation at the famed French fashion house in the wake of an uproar over Galliano’s alleged anti-Semitism.

Galliano was sacked on Tuesday after a video of him saying “I love Hitler” went viral. Some media reports say he’s in rehab in Arizona, although Dior officials have declined to comment on his whereabouts. Yesterday’s collection was designed under his supervision.

Toledano said it was “deeply painful to see the Dior name associated with the disgraceful statements attributed to its designer.”

He then made a bid to turn attention away from the scandal and toward Dior’s artisans.

“The heart of the Dior house is its ‘little hands. What you are going to see now is the result of their immense work,” he said.

The icy blue set, under a tent in the gardens of the Rodin Museum, was decorated to look like the ballroom of a chic Hausmannian apartment in Paris. The collection had a 1970s-influenced Bohemian theme, with wide-brimmed hats and fur accented outerwear in rich jewel tones.

At the show’s conclusion, when Galliano usually comes out in an outrageous outfit, around three dozen Dior workers, known as “small hands” in fashion jargon, took to the catwalk dressed in white lab coats.

They received a minute-long standing ovation from the nearly 1,000 fashion insiders at the show.

Still, celebrities appeared to avoid the show, even though Dior is among the most highly anticipated shows on the Paris fashion calendar and flocks of A-list celebrities generally take up first-row perches.

Security at the show was unusually high, with television teams being told they couldn’t speak to any of the few celebrity guests.

A spokesman for Galliano’s own fashion line said the label was canceling its runway show and instead will host a simple presentation of its latest collection.

Label spokesman Alexandre Malgouyres says the site of the presentation and the guest list haven’t been decided yet.

Picture: Models show creations from British designer John Galliano as part of Dior's Fall-Winter 2012 ready-to-wear fashion collection, presented in Paris yesterday (AP).