Cosmetics chain L'Etoile is bringing French chic to Russia with the appointment of celebrity designer John Galliano as its new creative director, a newspaper report said Wednesday.
Citing a source close to the company, Russian newspaper Kommersant said Galliano, the former head designer at French fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior, will be starting at L'Etoile on May 22.
L'Etoile said Galliano would be responsible for developing the retailer's house cosmetics brand, Kommersant reported.
Though widely revered for his sense of style, Galliano fell from grace in 2011 after he was caught on tape making antisemitic remarks and declaring his love for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler at a Paris cafe. Galliano later apologized for the incident, for which he was fired from Christian Dior, and attributed the rant to drug abuse.
L'Etoile's parent company Alcor & Co is Russia's largest cosmetics chain with about 850 branches —nearly four times more than nearest competitor Rive-Gauche, which has 224 stores.
In 2013, L'Etoile reported a revenue of 56 billion rubles ($1.61 billion), marking a 16 percent increase from the previous year, Kommersant reported, citing data from INFOline-analitika.
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