PARIS – France’s leading Jewish group says the Legion of Honor has complied with its rules by stripping disgraced fashion designer John Galliano of its honor award, a year after he was convicted over a drunken, anti-Semitic tirade in Paris.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy had awarded the British designer the Legion d’Honneur decoration in 2009 for his services to French couture, but it was withdrawn last week.
Richard Prasquier, president of the Jewish group CRIF, said Monday that “what he said made him unworthy of wearing this decoration. There are some convictions that aren’t compatible with the award.”
The British couturier, who was artistic director of the Christian Dior fashion house, was given suspended fines over the February 2011 incident, lost his job, then went into rehab.