Oh, Rico can't imagine why

Seems Christian Dior fired his star designer, John Galliano, and Cathy Horyn has the story in The New York Times:

The career of Christian Dior’s star designer, John Galliano, may well be over after he was dismissed for a video that surfaced of him making anti-Semitic remarks. But Dior and its parent company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, acted quickly and decisively in an attempt to limit any long-term damage to the Dior name.
Ronald Frasch, the president and chief merchandising officer at Saks Fifth Avenue, which carries Dior, said he did not think the brand would be left damaged. “My initial reaction is they gained respect by dealing with this directly,” Mr. Frasch said.
There is no doubt in the industry that Dior, one of the most recognizable and influential brands, will be able to attract a name designer as a successor to Mr. Galliano. There are no obvious choices yet , but among those being mentioned in the media are Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy and Alber Elbaz of Lanvin, both already in the LVMH stable.
The firing of Mr. Galliano, 50, a one-time punk stylist whose soaring imagination helped turn Dior into a multimillion-dollar brand, was the expected culmination of one of the strangest episodes in recent fashion history.
Dior suspended Mr. Galliano after he was accused by two people of making an anti-Semitic slur in the same Marais district bar, La Perle. Mr. Galliano lives nearby.
His lawyer, Stephane Zerbib, denied that his client had made anti-Semitic remarks. It is a crime in France to incite racial hatred, and the statute has been used to punish anti-Semitic speech.
A video, posted on the website of a British tabloid, The Sun, showed Mr. Galliano sitting alone in the bar and blearily telling some appalled-seeming patrons, “I love Hitler” and “people like you would be dead” and “your mothers, your forefathers would all be gassed". The video was reportedly made several months ago.
If Mr. Galliano’s once-brilliant future at Dior was tenuous last week, his fate seemed all but sealed on Monday evening when the actress Natalie Portman, who represents the brand’s Miss Dior Cherie perfume, denounced Mr. Galliano. In a statement, she said: “I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way.”
The news of Mr. Galliano’s dismissal cast a looming shadow over the opening of the Paris collections, as magazine editors and store buyers grappled with the implications for Dior and its retail business. One senior editor from an American magazine, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity in discussing a major advertiser, described the designer’s purported comments as “poisonous".
The news also brought some unwanted drama to shows that happened to be running around 5 p.m. Paris time. Five minutes after Anthony Vaccarello, a newcomer with enough excitement around him to attract Emmanuelle Alt, the editor of French Vogue, to his presentation, concluded his show, it was quickly forgotten as nearly every hand-held device in the place flickered to life and word spread down the front row that John Galliano had been fired an hour earlier.
Members of the fashion community who had been friendly with Mr. Galliano said they were surprised by his behavior and statements in the video because they seemed out of character. “He has always been pretty shy,” said Daphne Guinness, the British socialite. She speculated that the intensity of creative and commercial pressures on designers at global luxury houses may have had an impact on Mr. Galliano’s state of mind. She added: “It makes me terribly worried for him. He has had a couple of tough years.”
According to a Dior executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the company received numerous complaints from customers offended by Mr. Galliano’s conduct. This executive also said that Mr. Galliano remained in seclusion in his home over the weekend and did not try to contact his employer to possibly explain himself or offer an apology. Mr. Galliano did surface late on Monday afternoon, when he was questioned in a Paris police station about the altercation with the fellow customers at the Marais bar, and he was subsequently released. No charges have been filed.
In a brief statement, Sidney Toledano, Dior’s chief executive, said he condemned the words and conduct of Mr. Galliano, “which are in total contradiction to the longstanding core values of Christian Dior”. The company said it had initiated dismissal procedures.
Executives said a decision would soon be made whether to hold the fall ready-to-wear show as scheduled. But indications were the house planned to go ahead with its runway show. There was no word yet on whether Mr. Galliano’s show for the line designed under his own name would go ahead on Sunday afternoon as planned.
Mr. Galliano joined Dior in 1996, and he very quickly produced collections that made headlines and pleased his boss, Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH. One show in particular, a 2000 haute couture collection inspired by tramps, with models in torn newsprint-chiffon dresses and rope belts dangling with tin cups, was criticized in the French media as insensitive to the homeless. But, while Mr. Galliano apologized and riot police briefly surrounded Dior’s Avenue Montaigne headquarters, the outrage didn’t seem to hurt Dior or dim Mr. Galiano’s reputation for flamboyance.
Apart from a few weak seasons, Mr. Galliano’s collections for Dior (and for his own signature brand) have largely been critical triumphs and his runway shows regularly among the unquestioned highlights of Paris Fashion Week. He has been one of the great fashion talents of the last twenty years, known for his imagination and nearly unmatched technical skills.
In his knowledge of fashion, he was rivaled only by Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel, and in his showmanship he had few peers. And these peers were among of an influential generation of young designers that included Alexander McQueen (like Mr. Galliano, brash and British) before Mr. McQueen killed himself last year. Among Mr. Galliano’s most notable clients were Nicole Kidman, especially in the 1990s, when she became a red carpet luminary; the actress Marion Cotillard; and Carla Bruni, now the first lady of France.
In articles, Mr. Galliano seldom denied a wild past and taste for self-indulgence, though in more recent years it seemed directed toward physical improvement, special diets or some new spa experience. At least that was the side he showed the public and the fashion press. Not merely shy, Mr. Galliano seemed isolated.
In a 2007 profile of Mr. Galliano in The New York Times Magazine, Mr. Toledano said he often dealt with Mr. Galliano through intermediaries in the house, usually design assistants. And, yes, it bothered the chief executive that he sometimes didn’t have direct contact with his designer. “I still don’t know him personally,” Mr. Toledano said then.