Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta dressed first ladies, but his first loyalty was to family and friends

John Galliano’s two-year fashion exile—imposed after his ugly anti-Semitic rant in a Paris café was caught on video—appears to have ended. The theatrical British designer—who was sacked as Christian Dior’s creative director, dumped by his own label, and stripped of his Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur—has been given temporary studio space by respected American design kingpin Oscar de la Renta, who says he is a “great admirer of [Galliano’s] talent.” Galliano, convicted by French courts on two complaints of anti-Semitic behaviour, blamed his outbursts on alcoholism and claims he spent the past two years in recovery. Now his real rehab begins.