John Galliano, who has been the chief designer at Christian Dior since 1996, has been suspended from his duties at the fashion house after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman and making anti-Semitic remarks at an outdoor Paris café Thursday.
“The House of Dior declares with the greatest firmness its policy of zero tolerance with regard to any anti-Semitic or racist statement or attitude,” Dior boss Sidney Toledano said in a statement, reports the Associated Press. “Pending the outcome of the [police] enquiry, Christian Dior has suspended John Galliano from all duties.”
According to French news reports, Galliano, 50, was detained in the French capital’s fashionable Marais district after he allegedly verbally accosted a couple in a bar called The Pearl. It is not clear why Galliano approached the woman, who was dining with her husband, or what was said. The woman filed a police report.
Police are investigating the case before it is handed over to the public prosecutor’s office.
