John Galliano

John Galliano, full name John Charles Galliano, is a British fashion designer best known for his ready-to-wear and haute-couture collections for Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Maison Margiela. He was born on November 28, 1960, in Gilbraltar.

Galliano, the son of a Spanish plumber, came from Gibraltar to south London with his family when he was a six-year-old boy. He left Wilson's Grammar School for Boys, where he had been an unremarkable student, at the age of 16 to pursue a degree in textile design at East London College. John Galliano enrolled at London's St. Martin's School of Art, where he developed an interest in historical costuming. Les Incroyables, his graduate collection inspired by the French Revolution, was bought right off the college runway by the proprietor of an elite London fashion store in 1984. Galliano established himself as the "boy wonder" of British fashion after graduating with first-class honors and opening a workshop in a warehouse in London's East End. In 1987 and 1994, John Galliano was named British Fashion Council Designer of the Year, and in 1991, he debuted on the Paris catwalk.

Galliano's company was purchased from Bult by the luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessy (LVMH) after Galliano's appointment as a designer in chief at the Dior fashion house in 1996.However, he admitted that Givenchy's conservative linear designs were closer to his own taste than Dior's New Look, which included coats with padded shoulders and wide ankle-length skirts.