John Galliano

John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer from Gibraltar. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. Since 2014, Galliano has been the creative director of Paris-based fashion house Maison Margiela. Galliano has been named British Designer of the Year four times. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, he was named the fifth most influential person in British culture. Early life and education Galliano was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father of Italian descent, Juan Galliano, and a Spanish mother, Anita Galliano, and has two sisters. His father worked as a plumber. His family moved to England when Galliano was six, settling in Streatham and later Dulwich and Brockley in South London. He was raised in a strict Catholic family. Galliano attended St. Anthony's Primary School, Dulwich and Wilson's Grammar School in London. He went on to study at Central Saint Martins and graduated in 1984 with a first class honours degree in Fashion Design. His graduating collection was inspired by the French Revolution and entitled Les Incroyables. The collection received positive reviews and was bought in its entirety for resale in the London fashion boutique Browns. Galliano was appointed head designer of Givenchy in 1995, thus becoming the first British designer to head a French haute couture house (if you don't count nineteenth century Charles Worth who arguably invented it). Career