John Galliano Is Going to Zara. Yes, That Zara

'High & Low: John Galliano' Courtesy of Telluride Film Festival

After fashion‘s 2025 designer hopscotch — the biggest creative director turnover ever in one year (Dior, Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Maison Margiela, Versace, Loewe, Gucci, Balenciaga, Proenza Schouler, Alaia) — there was only one big question left to ask: whither designer darling John Galliano? The fashion world hadn’t stopped asking it since he departed Margiela in 2024. Would he return to Dior? (no) Would LVMH fund his own luxury line? (no) Would he join Alaia? (no)

Now we have our answer, and it’s a shocker: John Galliano is going to Zara. If you’re asking “WTF?” right now, so are we. The announcement broke Tuesday on Instagram.

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To understand why this is such a big deal, a little history. Galliano — often referred to as the world’s greatest couturier — was fired from Dior in 2011 after a video surfaced of him making antisemitic remarks at a Paris bar. He was effectively banished from the fashion industry. He did, however, detox from drugs and alcohol, study with a rabbi for a year, and eventually apologize on camera in his 2024 documentary, High & Low — John Galliano.

His rehabilitation was made official when risk-taking fashion entrepreneur Renzo Rosso — the man behind Diesel, Jil Sander, Marni and Viktor&Rolf, who had a track record of making Euro avant-garde brands commercially successful — appointed Galliano creative director of Maison Martin Margiela in 2014. It was a gamble that paid off spectacularly. Anna Wintour championed his work; Zendaya wore Margiela to the 2024 Met Gala; so did Kim Kardashian, Adrien Brody, Gwendoline Christie and Bad Bunny. Ariana Grande also wore it that night for her Met Gala performance. By the time Galliano departed in 2024, Margiela sales had risen 24 percent over his ten-year tenure.

Which brings us back to Zara — and why it might not be as crazy as it sounds. There is some precedent for this kind of high/low move. In 2019, New York darling Zac Posen, famed for designer eveningwear, closed his eponymous business. In 2024, he joined The Gap as creative director. Colleagues and fans were shocked — how could Zac sink so low, go mass commercial? Now they know: Posen reinvented America’s best-selling mall brand with the addition of GapStudio — slightly more expensive pieces with great cuts, better fabrics — and Lila Moss, then Gwyneth Paltrow and Apple Martin as models. Since then, many celebs have worn The Gap or GapStudio on major red carpets. Gap sales have been uneven, but there’s far more attention on the brand and certainly far more style. No reportage on his earnings, but speculation is he’s making more annually than many brand designers.

In 2024, Uniqlo — another major mall brand, hailing from Japan, built on clean basics for everyone — hired Clare Waight Keller, former Givenchy and Chloé creative director. Jonathan Anderson also continues to create a line of basics for the brand under his own name. Who’s next?

Zara has done plenty of designer collabs before — Viktor&Rolf, Stefano Pilati (former YSL designer), Narciso Rodriguez, fashion photographer Steven Meisel — but the Galliano collaboration is unique in that he signed on for two years to reimagine existing designs, digging through the brand’s back catalog and releasing new pieces twice a year starting this September. (I’m lining up tomorrow.)

According to WWD, Galliano’s signature Dior work is already a major hit with collectors. Bonhams New York is currently auctioning a series of Y2K-era bias-cut slip dresses as part of an online sale called “From the Vault: Dior,” featuring 127 designs from multiple Dior designers, running through March 20.

With Dior and Chanel charging five grand for a jacket, four grand for a bag, and couture prices hitting $135,000 a dress (up from $50,000), the big swing is heading in the other direction. The gap between the rich and everyone else has never been wider; now fashion is starting to reflect it.