Designer Galliano Says He Can't Recall Speaking Slurs

 PARIS — In a halting voice, John Galliano, the fallen star designer of the fashion house of Dior, defended himself Wednesday against hate-crime charges by insisting he could not remember spewing anti-Semitic insults in a Parisian bar because of drug and alcohol addictions.

Mr. Galliano, 50, appeared in court wearing a subdued charcoal jacket and open-necked shirt, speaking with the aid of a French interpreter who was replaced by Mr. Galliano’s lawyer when the translator had trouble understanding the English-speaking designer.

“I have addictions, I am recovering from addictions and I am still in treatment,” Mr. Galliano said as he stood facing a panel of three judges. Under questioning, he said his addictions to alcohol, sleeping pills and Valium were a crutch to cope with extreme work pressures and financial crisis.

“The drinking started in a cyclical way. After every creative high I would crash,” Mr. Galliano said, adding that the death of a friend and key aide, along with work pressures, exacerbated his drinking.

“Dior is a big machine and I didn't want to lose Galliano,” he said of his own label, which is majority owned by Dior. He complained about suffering panic attacks as he struggled to raise new revenues for his brands for everything from children’s underwear to menswear.

For the one-day trial, the judges evaluated testimony of about a half-dozen witnesses and watched a grainy, 45-second cellphone video that shows Mr. Galliano speaking in a slurred voice. The witnesses testified about two incidents, in October and February, both at a bar in the Marais, La Perle. The video, which involves a third dispute that was not part of the trial, was allowed as evidence.

The crime of which he stands accused — public insults about religion, race, or ethnicity — ordinarily ensnares far-right politicians with a clear ideology. Prosecutors are seeking damages from Mr. Galliano of up to 5,000 euros, or more than $7,000, per plaintiff, but no prison sentence. A verdict is to be issued on Sept. 8.

Despite the attention surrounding his trial, the John Galliano label will go ahead with plans to stage a show Friday of his menswear line for Paris fashion week, which also began on Wednesday.

But for Mr. Galliano, there was no red carpet on Wednesday, just the bare parquet floor in a wood-paneled French courtroom, where a young couple in their 30s testified in detail about their encounter with Mr. Galliano at La Perle, a clash that ultimately resulted in his being fired by Dior.

Mr. Galliano insisted that he had no recollection of the venomous language that witnesses described, or of the comments he made in the 45-second video, which had been widely circulated online, showing Mr. Galliano slurring his words and declaring, among other things, “I love Hitler.”

“He had different expressions, dirty Jew, Dirty Jewish face,” recalled Geraldine Bloch, an art curator whose visit to the bar exploded into a 45-minute encounter with Mr. Galliano in late February.

“At a certain point, he told us to leave because he said I was in his bar and his neighborhood. He finished by saying, ‘I am John Galliano,”’ she said, noting that he also peppered his comments with observations about her hair and what he called her “revolting” eyebrows and boots.

After the video was viewed in court on a wide screen, Mr. Galliano stood and faced the judges and spoke about himself, sometimes in the third person.

“I never had these views all my life,” he said. “These are not the sentiments of John Galliano.”

Ultimately, Mr. Galliano apologized for his behavior, including the video and the dispute with the couple. He said that he himself had faced discrimination for being gay.

“On the video, I see someone who needs help and is very vulnerable,” he said. “It’s the shell of John Galliano.”

Dubbed fashion’s bad boy for his flamboyant and provocative style, Mr. Galliano had helped to energize Dior since he joined in 1996 as creative director, increasing sales and making it one of the jewels of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury empire, run by the billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Yet in court, that flamboyance had vanished. He spoke so quietly that the judge pushed him several times to speak into a microphone.

For every witness who declared a list of insults, he responded in a tired voice that he could not remember.

“I was in denial,” he said. “I was taking all those pills and alcohol. I was in complete denial. I am still in recovery. But I am feeling much better.”

The hearing, which started about 4 p.m. and continued for more than four hours, also included witnesses who said they had not heard any anti-Semitic remarks made by Mr. Galliano. One supportive witness was an English-language teacher.

Others have fashion industry ties — an American fashion student and a public relations employee who represents fashion firms.

At one point, the presiding judge, Anne-Marie Sauteraud, asked his current profession.

“I have none,” he said, almost inaudibly.

Then he issued a plea to the judge to take note of his work, inspired by his travel to diverse countries.

“I know what it feels to be discriminated against,” Mr. Galliano testified, noting that his real name is Juan and that his mother is Spanish. “We moved to south London when I was 6 years old and aware that I was gay. I was sent to a difficult English boys school and you can imagine that children can be cruel.”        

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