John Galliano reportedly set to take up teaching position

According to a number of media reports, including Vogue UK, the British designer has signed up to teach a three-day workshop titled “Show Me Emotion” alongside the college’s dean, Simon Collins. 

First founded in 1896 as the Chase School, Parsons has grown into one of the world’s most widely respected schools of art and design. The school’s fashion design program has helped kickstart the careers of some of the industry’s biggest names, including Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, and Alexander Wang. 

Galliano is something of a controversial figure in fashion circles. One of the industry’s biggest stars, he suffered a dramatic fall from grace in 2011, after a drunken anti-Semitic rant saw the designer fired from his role at Dior and fined €6,000 by a French court.

Nonetheless, his rehabilitation has been praised by Jewish group the Anti-Defamation League, which released a statement prasing Galliano for the way he had “worked arduously in changing his worldview and dedicated a significant amount of time to researching, reading, and learning about the evils of anti-Semitism and bigotry.”

This isn’t the first time the fashion icon has dipped a toe back into higher education. Just last month he was in London to set a project and help critique students’ work at the famous Central Saint Martins school of design, the alma mater of Alexander McQueen, Phoebe Philo and Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci, among others. 

jt/kc