When John Galliano strutted down the catwalk of his haute couture collection for Christian Dior in January of 2005 dressed in a dramatic black frock-coat that unmistakably identified him as the pint-sized Napoleon Bonaparte, he could have never guessed with what eerie premonition he would wear those borrowed robes and how this very image would come to haunt him a few years later when his long and glorious reign at Dior came to an abrupt and untimely end. Irony had done its worst and the emperor of fashion was in exile.

The most powerful woman in fashion was secretly meeting the disgraced designer whom she reportedly greeted warmly with a hug

On March 1, 2011, the world woke up to the news that Galliano had been made redundant from his job at Dior after he launched an anti-Semitic tirade against two women at the Paris bar La Perle.

Following this outburst, more people came out of the woodwork with both videos and complaints against Galliano, who had seemed to have made something of a habit of insulting people about their supposed Jewishness.

It was an irony not lost on many that while the actress whom he had handpicked for the Miss Dior Cherie campaign was a staunch Jew, none of the people he had openly denigrated and insulted were.

Although Dior’s chief executive Sidney Toledano firmly condemned what had been said by Galliano, many people in the fashion world sent him open messages of support and there seems to be no love letter greater than that sent by the devil wearing Prada herself, American Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

Wintour had recognised Galliano’s talent from the very beginning of his career and it would not be the first time that she acted as Galliano’s personal lady luck; in 1993, it was she who introduced him to the financial backers venture firm Arbela Inc. when he was down and out and it would seem that she plans to turn the wheel again.

On the same day that Galliano’s predecessor Raf Simmons was debuting his first haute couture collection, the most powerful woman in fashion was secretly meeting the disgraced designer whom she reportedly greeted warmly with a hug.

While such a move would be considered tantamount to fashion suicide for most people, ‘Nuclear Wintour’ is not one who falls within such a base category and many have speculated about possible collaborations between the two.

Like Napoleon, it would seem that Galliano could be set to escape exile before the end of the year, but it remains to be seen whether or not he will be allowed to scale the glorious heights which he had risen to before this rude awakening.

Glory may be fleeting and obscurity forever, but it is doubtful indeed whether such a man renowned for his pageantry will be willing to simply fade into the grey walls of Dior’s history.