Who will take the helm at Christian Dior?

While New York and Milan continue to duke it out over Fashion Week 2012, the rest of the fashion world is much more interested in the million dollar question: WHO will replace John Galliano as the creative director for Christian Dior?

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Raf Simons, who is currently the creative director for Jil Sander, had been rumored to be in negotiations until late 2011.  Simons is credited with bringing sexy back to offices worldwide with his sleek take on modern workwear.  While he'd stated that he was staying put at Jil Sander early last year, last night, the Belgian designer was the front-runner to replace Galliano at Dior once again after negotiations with another designer appeared to break down.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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Late last year, the attention swung to Marc Jacobs, who not only runs his own brand, but is the creative director for Louis Vuitton.  Speculation that he was in contract negotiations at Christian Dior rose to a fever pitch yesterday when it was rumored that Jacobs turned the offer down when his entire team at Louis Vuitton was not included in the Dior deal. While I admire his loyalty, I've seen many a CEO bring their previous team onboard a few at a time over a brief interlude where you pretend to play nice with your new teammates.  Maybe, he's not into political games?

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If I could choose for Christian Dior, my dream pick would be Tom Ford.  I still have the corset shoes from his final collection at Gucci in 2004 on my holy grail of fashion list.  I really believe that it takes an incredible force of creativity and sheer talent to simultaneously run two major design houses the way that he did at Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci.  He would be ideal as the creative director of the iconic fashion house that is Christian Dior.

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How did Galliano lose his job? Via smartphone! My friend Morgan quipped last night, "Smartphones have become the IT way to ruin one's career regardless of industry!"  John Galliano went on an anti-semitic rant at a Parisian bar early last spring and claimed to love Hitler.  Too drunk to be aware that he was being filmed, he advised a couple at the bar that their mother and forefathers would have been gassed. As you can imagine, the video went viral.

Clearly, he should have studied his history and realized that while Christian Dior was forced to dress the wives of Nazi officers during the occupation of France in World War II, Christian's sister, Catherine, served in the French Resistance.  She was captured by Nazi forces and forced into a concentration camp in Germany before finally being liberated in 1945.  So, keep your opinions to yourself, friend!

I can't wait to know who will take over at Christian Dior.  Hopefully, the Fashion Week scheduling debacle will be sorted out by then!

Happy Tuesday!