It’s been over a month since John Galliano’s devastating anti-Semitic debacle.
When the story broke it was embarrassingly clear that he had screwed up but it was in the days that followed that the fashion world began to realize exactly why the incident was so detrimental.
If timing is the essence of good PR, the John Galliano episode is a case study in bad timing.
Bad timing made John Galliano’s public stupidity even stupider.
From a public relations perspective the John Galliano/Dior incident serves as a wake-up call for public figures living in the age of citizen journalism. Everyone has a visual recording device so don’t say anything in public that you wouldn’t want on the cover of the New York Times.

Former Dior Designer John Galliano

Citizen journalism is much more detrimental than traditional journalism. This explains why Charlie Sheen can make slightly anti-Semitic comments on a radio show and have millions of followers on Twitter the following week.
He knowingly made the comments public and feels he has a legitimate beef with Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre.
John Galliano was unknowingly caught on video, making comments that are undeniably anti-Semitic and has no beef with his victims at all. He says that he was provoked but that part wasn’t immortalized. In the world of new media, if it wasn’t caught on video, it’s as though it didn’t happen. The world concluded that Galliano hates Jews, even if he doesn’t.
The story broke days before a major Dior fashion show in Paris. The show had to be cancelled.
It also happened days before Natalie Portman, the acting Dior spokesperson was supposed to wear a Dior gown to the Oscars. She did not wear a Dior gown and later stepped down as spokesperson.
Dior must have lost millions due to the fact that the incident occurred days before these two events (bad timing) and the company wasn’t going to risk losing more money and its good reputation by not springing into action. Dior hired crisis communications company Kekst, who must have advised them to fire Galliano.
Dior’s reputation is intact and despite the fact that several fashion industry insiders have defended Galliano, his reputation has been damaged.
What does the future hold for Galliano? Thankfully, the advantage of new media is that it has made the public’s memory very short. The incident will drift away into a sea of forgotten scandals and hopefully the world will not be deprived of Galliano’s breath-taking designs.
If Kanye can recover, anything is possible.

Last month I got an email from Allison Wonderland’s publicist Nicole Stewart of Nicole Stewart PR. I thought it was a great example of an online fashion press release because it was extremely easy to use and a pleasure to look at.
Firstly, the press release was in the content of the email, along with four pictures that were formatted to a standard blogging size. It was so simple to place them directly into my blog. I didn’t have to download a thing.
I’m pretty sure she formatted the pictures in photoshop and then copied and pasted them into the email. I was so inspired by the formatting of the email that I composed a similar email for my good friend Melanie Thompson, founder of Adala Clothing.
I also wrote a post about Allison Wonderland because Nicole Stewart made it so easy.

The press release’s success can be attributed to the fact that it was formatted to be eye-catching, it was simple to read and use and above all, it was personal. You could tell that Nicole actually took the time to read my blog and tailor the press release to a fashion blogger like me.

Here are some more Allison Wonderland pics. The line is pretty dope, can’t wait to rock it this summer

Allison Wonderland Fairfax Dress

Allison Wonderland Howe Skirt and Cardero Blouse

Allison Wonderland Laurel Canyon Dress

Allison Wonderland Manhattan Coat