Sidney Toledano

>> With Marc Jacobs out of the picture, Raf Simons — who recently came under consideration, alongside Jason Wu and Alexander Wang — has emerged as frontrunner for the Dior job.

According to WWD's sources, Dior is closing in on a contract with 43-year-old Simons, although the deal has yet to be concluded. Among the details that still need to be worked out: a start date (Simons, who has been at Jil Sander since 2005, reportedly just recently extended his contract with that house for an unknown duration) and when his first Dior collection would debut (likely not for Spring 2012 couture in January nor Fall 2012 in March).

Dior CEO Sidney Toledano is currently traveling in Asia and was not immediately reachable for comment, and Simons did not return phone calls.

>> Sidney Toledano, president and CEO of Dior, gave an update yesterday on the status of the label's designer search (Bill Gaytten, acting head of design, oversaw both the Spring 2012 Dior and John Galliano collections): "We will have news in the next few weeks."

He refused to suggest who it might be, but when Marc Jacobs's name was brought up, Toledano paused, then replied: "There is an old proverb, those who don't know, speak loudly. Those who know, stay silent." As for the company as a whole, Toledano says, "Business has been great," but declined to go into further detail.

A "source close to LVMH" recently told Vogue UK: "For Dior, it's a pretty tricky situation, as the three favourites really can't take the job. Haider Ackermann is said to be 'way too edgy' for Dior; Marc Jacobs wanted the job a lot, but LVMH wants him to stick with Vuitton; and Riccardo Tisci simply refused, saying that he was feeling more than comfortable with the job at Givenchy. So nobody's taking over so far."

>> It's sounding more and more like Bernard Arnault's long-held strategy of hiring enfant terrible designers to reinvigorate luxury brands (John Galliano at Dior, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen at Givenchy) will not be employed for his new Dior hire, whoever that may be.

Arnault has seen the even-tempered — even shy — Phobe Philo create triple-digit growth at Celine, and believes that it has the potential to be the next major brand. “It will take time, but [Celine] is on the way,” he tells Robin Givhan in Newsweek. “Phoebe has the potential. She is doing a style which is completely in line with our time.” Plus, he notes: “My daughter Delphine, she’s working at Dior, but she wears Celine.”

There's also the bad taste that Galliano seems to have left in Arnault's mouth. “I’m surprised that I did not get a call or a word of excuse from him,” he said not long after Galliano was fired. “After all that I did for him?” And he still hasn't been able to bring himself to forgive Galliano: “Not yet."

Although Arnault says he has no plans to make Dior into a minimalist label in the way of Celine, he does suggest it's time for a change at the house. Givhan writes: "[It's] time to recast his global, glittering, status-laden empire as something else. The watchwords are: intimate, Old World, artful. And the timing feels right."

As Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano points out: “A lot of schools produce designers, but the technical people — this is what we have to protect. They work very hard here, and they live outside of Paris. They are not living like the designer. They are simple people. Some of them have a difficult life. They have their feet on the ground." Ultimately, he says, "They’re sustaining the house."

Arnault agrees, saying of the current Dior situation: “I think we have the equivalent of the Vienna Philharmonic. From time to time, the Vienna Philharmonic could play without a conductor because they are so good. But that cannot last forever. We want to [make] the best choice for the house and find the best conductor.”

But, star designers can come and go. “A good product,” Arnault says, “can last forever.”

>> Despite reports late last week that LVMH was considering re-hiring John Galliano to design for his eponymous label, it's not happening. LVMH chief Bernard Arnault laid any rumors to rest on Saturday, when he said of Galliano: “He will not be working for LVMH.” Arnault added that after Galliano's arrest and dismissal from Dior and LVMH, “he didn’t have the simple politeness to contact me.”

When asked if he had been concerned about Galliano's behavior and absences from work in recent years, Sidney Toledano, CEO at both John Galliano and Christian Dior, replied: “There were concerns, and we warned him officially. I’ve talked to the lawyers for years.”

A new designer, meanwhile, is stepping into Galliano's shoes — at least at his namesake label. Bill Gaytten, who worked beside Galliano in his studio for 23 years, took a bow at the end of the Galliano Spring 2012 menswear show in Paris on Friday (which featured Galliano lookalikes) and is set to succeed Galliano at the creative helm of the collection, Toledano confirmed.

Gaytten oversaw the men's collection from conception to runway. “It’s the same job for me; I’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said. “It was a bit different because John wasn’t there.” He then confessed: “I’m dying to know what he thinks!”

Gaytten is also the studio team leader for Dior's Fall 2011 couture show next week, fueling speculation that he might be a contender to succeed Galliano at Dior, as well. Toledano declined comment on that search.

>> Azzedine Alaia was called to take the open creative director job at Dior, recently vacated by John Galliano, he has just confirmed. But: he said he wasn't interested — flattered, but not something he was going to pursue. The story of what happened with Galliano was a sad story, he added, and he didn't want to be part of the next chapter. As the Financial Times's Vanessa Friedman points out: "The sheer fact that the Dior leadership was thinking this way does ... make me think the field may be more open than the fashion world suspects. ... Since I would never under-estimate Bernard Arnault, chairman of Dior (which actually owns LVMH), nor CEO Sidney Toledano, ... this makes me wonder if perhaps the group has some interesting plans to change the way it does business up its sleeve, and will use the new designer as an excuse to do so. If so, it would be a revolution that would have an enormous ripple effect on the whole fashion industry. My guess is other brands would immediately fall in behind; everyone is looking for a reason to change and slow down, but everyone is scared to be the brand that sticks its neck out." [FT]

>> LVMH is taking its time with the announcement of Dior's new designer, and it sounds like the decision still has yet to be made. At a recent shareholders' meeting, Bernard Arnault said the plan was to interview a number of candidates before making the call when "conviction" arrives.

But who's reportedly on the short list of candidates Bernard Arnault's advisors have submitted? Tom Ford, Hedi Slimane, Olivier Theyskens, Nicholas Ghesquiere, Alber Elbaz, Haider Ackermann, Prabal Gurung, and Sarah Burton. However, a source in Paris told WWD that LVMH is placing less importance on marquee names and focusing rather on “someone who understands Dior and fits the needs of the company.”

While Arnault, chairman of the board at Dior, is sure to get the final say on the appointee, Dior CEO Sidney Toledano, who has helmed the company since 1998, and Delphine Arnault (Bernard's daughter), deputing managing director at Dior and widely viewed as the eventual LVMH heir apparent, are also expected to weigh in. Apparently Dior execs are also receiving unsolicited designer suggestions from top editors and even shareholders.

Delphine, for her part, is seen as a champion of Riccardo Tisci; the Givenchy designer has reportedly been lobbying for the position as well, sketching out his vision for the brand. Bernard Arnault, meanwhile, is reportedly transfixed by royalty, and if Sarah Burton does dress Kate Middleton for her wedding at the end of the month (despite Burton's and the McQueen company's denials), she may pull ahead in the race. Arnault would be keen to launch the new Dior alongside the newly-married couple; Princess Diana, after all, helped catapult the brand's image in 1995 when she wore a Lady Dior bag and then in 1996 when she wore a midnight blue, bias-cut Dior gown by John Galliano to the Costume Institute Gala.

In the meantime, design duties are falling on Dior's in-house design studios, headed by Bill Gaytten, who has worked beside Galliano since the '80s. They're already creating the Cruise 2012 collection and have started in on the upcoming Fall 2011 couture collection, in preparation for its debut in July.

>> Dior CEO Sidney Toledano was at the John Galliano presentation yesterday — "the clearest signal that Dior hasn’t given up on Galliano — at least not yet," the Wall Street Journal noted. "For the moment, the [Galliano] business continues," Toledano confirmed. "This is a business which has licenses and tomorrow we will show the collection in the showrooms as usual . . . I am here to prove that business goes on . . . and to support the teams." Without Galliano the designer, however, it's not clear how long Dior's commitment will last; and the label, which barely breaks even, would not survive without Dior, which owns a 92 percent stake in the brand. [WSJ, Reuters]

>> Christian Dior has fired John Galliano, effective immediately. In a brief statement, Dior said that because of the "odious behavior" Galliano showed in the video circulated yesterday, Dior has sidelined him and initiated proceedings to fire him.

Sidney Toledano, Dior's president and CEO, added, “I condemn most firmly the statements made by John Galliano which are a total contradiction with the essential values that have always been defended by the House of Christian Dior.”

A person close to the matter had said yesterday that Dior was waiting for the police investigation to conclude before it makes any definitive decision about Galliano's future at the brand, but added that it was trying to verify the authenticity of yesterday's video, and if authenticated, the maison would have "little option" but to dismiss Galliano.

>> Last night at 9 pm, French police briefly detained John Galliano for alleged assault and making anti-Semitic remarks at a Paris cafe. According to a police source: "We arrived extremely quickly and managed to break up the disturbance. The man involved [Galliano] was briefly arrested and then released pending charges for assault. Witnesses said he swore heavily, using anti-Jewish insults, before attacking a couple. Both have provided witness statements, as have a number of other people at the bar, including staff." It was the couple — a man and woman — who filed the complaint.

In response, Dior has suspended Galliano. House CEO Sidney Toledano said in a statement: "Dior affirms with the utmost conviction its policy of zero tolerance towards any anti-Semitic or racist words or behaviour. Pending the results of the inquiry, Christian Dior has suspended John Galliano from his responsibilities."

According to police, Galliano was under the influence of alcohol at the time — 1.01 milligrams of alcohol per liter of exhaled air (the legal limit in France for driving is 0.5 mg/L). An eyewitness tells Vogue UK: "We had a table at [the Paris cafe] La Perle and John Galliano sat next to us. He spoke to a couple at a nearby table to say 'Cheers' and they insulted him. An argument started and the police came, so Galliano's bodyguard suggested that they should go to the police station to sort it out. He wasn't 'busted' aggressively by police, it was very quiet and peaceful. I definitely didn't hear him say anything anti-Semitic, or against any religion, it was all very calm."

Another, more-detailed eyewitness account can be read here.

Galliano's lawyer says the designer "formally denies the accusations of anti-Semitism made against him. [He] is not at all in this state of mind [and] will explain later. Legal action will be taken against those making such accusations."

The Fall 2011 Dior show Galliano was working on is scheduled to take place March 4, and his signature collection's show is on the Paris Fashion Week calendar for March 6; the fate of those events has not been addressed. The alleged remarks also bring under question Natalie Portman's relationship with Dior — the Israeli-born, Jewish actress is the current face of the Miss Dior Cherie perfume and is rumored to be wearing a Christian Dior dress to the Oscars.

A Paris police spokesman, meanwhile, confirmed that Galliano is facing criminal charges and would appear in court on a date to be fixed.