“My name is Alice, so please Your Majesty,” the young girl, draped in Dior couture, said softly. “You make me giddy!” screamed the Queen. Dior Haute Couture by John Galliano hand-painted polka-dot dress. Galliano, as the Queen of Hearts, wears a Dior Haute Couture coat and is accompanied by his King, Alexis Roche.

The original AOC headline for this 2003 fashion story featuring fashion’s top designers is: Natalia Vodianova 'Alice in Wonderland' by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue US December 2003. The entire renewed-in- 2023 story has been moved next door to this post.

Today’s cancellation of the Spring 2027 John Galliano exhibition at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute is connected to the 2003 fashion story, because 1] Galliano appeared as a Sun King fashion dictator in the 2003 story and 2] AOC considers Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson, who acted as Galliano’s liberator in summer 2025, to be tightly tied to values that we reject. Dior is struggling in China, as we speak. It’s a fact that Dior book totes are in resale free-fall in China.

Continuing on with my comments, I offer two versions in Chinese of my initial response to the news, followed by a third commentary in English. Although John Galliano is regarded favorably in China, his anti-Jewish, anti-Asian bigotry was a key part of charges filed against him in France.

THE MAD TEA PARTY: “No room!” the March Hare and Mad Hatter shouted. “No room!” But Alice plunked herself down, desperate for some biscuits after a long day of living bakward. Christian Lacroix Haute Couture dress with painted and sculpted mink dickey over a lace top and frilled lamé skirt. Stephen Jones wears a custom-made hat of his own design. Lacroix, as the March Hare, is at far right.

Anne’s Message to AOC’s China Readers in response to the cancellation of the Met’s 2027 John Galliano retrospective:

Headline and Text Version 1: 新人类主义的抉择：当“太阳王”安德森撞上加利亚诺对亚洲与历史的傲慢

大都会博物馆戛然而止地取消 2027 年春季约翰·加利亚诺作品展，向整个时尚界敲响了警钟：有些旧账，终究是“多一事不如少一事”。回溯 2025 年夏天，被誉为新晋“太阳王”的乔纳森·安德森在其首秀中高调推崇加利亚诺，企图以虚无的“新人类主义”抹去后者曾对犹太及亚洲群体犯下的恶劣历史罪言。然而，从安德森因推崇《德拉古拉》等带有欧洲中心主义偏见的文学导致亚洲市场包袋销量暴跌，到如今展览的流产，无不证明了文化认知的浅薄。中国乃至全球兼具理性与正义感的顶级创意阶层早已表明态度：真正的多元与尊重，绝非靠资本包装或傲慢的敷衍便能轻易过关。

Headline and Text Version 2: 新人類主義的抉擇：當「太陽王」安德森撞上加利亞諾對亞洲與歷史的傲慢

大都會博物館戛然而止地取消 2027 年春季約翰·加利亞諾作品展，向整個時尚界敲響了警鐘：有些舊帳，終究是「多一事不如少一事」。回溯 2025 年夏天，被譽為新晉「太陽王」的喬納森·安德森在其首秀中高調推崇加利亞諾，企圖以虛無的「新人類主義」抹去後者曾對猶太及亞洲群體犯下的惡劣歷史罪言。然而，從安德森因推崇《德拉古拉》等帶有歐洲中心主義偏見的文學導致亞洲市場包袋銷量暴跌，到如今展覽的流產，無不證明了文化認知的淺薄。中國乃至全球兼具理性與正義感的頂級創意階層早已表明態度：真正的多元與尊重，絕非靠資本包裝或傲慢的敷衍便能輕易過關。

Text Version 3: Anne’s comment in English:

The Metropolitan Museum’s sudden decision to cancel the Spring 2027 John Galliano exhibition serves as a sharp reminder to the fashion industry that some sleeping dogs are best left to lie. Looking back to the summer of 2025, Jonathan Anderson—the industry’s newest Sun King—used his debut to champion Galliano, attempting to invoke a selective, New Humanism to bypass the designer's history of both antisemitic and anti-Asian hate speech.
Yet, from the plunge of Anderson's book tote sales in Asia due to Eurocentric literary choices like Dracula, to this abrupt exhibition collapse, the lesson is clear. China's top-tier, educated creative class stands as a fair and reasonable arbiter of true cultural values, proving that historical disrespect cannot be erased by institutional curation or corporate hubris.

DRINK ME...: How was Alice to know the innocent little bottle would make her grow to such a size? As Helmut Lang watched from the wall, she curled her legs up and hoped the designer’s organza minidress wouldn’t be crushed by her startling height. Dress from the Helmut Lang made-to-measure Studio.

In America, Civilizationism and New Humanism are Locked in a Fierce Battle

I am grateful that my voice is open to AOC’s Chinese visitors, who come from 46 regions across this vast country of major importance in today’s world. My decision is also connected to the growth of a concept called Civilizationism, a view of the world diametrically opposed to what I call New Humanism.

New Humanism serves as an updated term that rejects Eurocentrism — the idea that Western philosophy and politics are inherently superior to all others. Now attached to an uber-conservative version of Christianity, Civilizationism is a committed foe to New Humanism. This fight is between those demanding a return to America’s ‘white men rule’ position in global affairs and in American politics and Anne’s belief, one shared by millions of Americans, that we reject this vision of an advanced society.

ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR: Clad in Marc Jacobs’s ruffled chiffon minidress, Alice found herself engaged in an infuriatingly roundabout conversation with a mushroom-dweller. Where am I? she wondered... and how have I gotten here?

God Did Not Approve or Praise Chattel Slavery

New Humanism also rejects the Christian nationalist belief that God himself sanctioned the global scourge of chattel slavery, as a form of eventual liberation for people of color in heaven. In my opinion, this is the saddest excuse in the history of humankind for people in power to take zero responsibility for their horrific and brutal past actions.

These same people believe they are on a fast track to eternal salvation, because they stood up for God’s will and acted on his instructions — even when their actions exceeded any and all known ‘crimes against humanity’ on record, except for The Holocaust. What God would sanction these evil actions?

Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière crystal pleated silk chiffon dress and gray ankle boots. Shot on location at the Château de Corbeil-Cerf.“Oh, Kitty! How nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things in it!”

A Fight to the Finish

I’ve been involved in this fight against Christian nationalism my entire life. It even landed me in police protection for a year, terrorized by the threats against my life by a real man, always lurking in the shadows of my everyday life.

Example, he left decapitated, bloody animals on my doorstep or the box of rope he would use to hang me. Arriving before dawn until the all-night police protection route included my home, his presents became evidence of just how closely this individual pursued me.

One night he flew over my windshield, as I backed my car out of its parking space. Screaming in furor, I tried to run him over, as he rolled off the hood of my car, with a big thud. Sobbing into my phone — I called the police lieutenant and precinct commander on his private number at 10 pm. He asked me: “Is he alive or just injured?” “I don’t know,” I sobbed into the phone. “I may have killed him.”

THE MOCK TURTLE’S STORY: “What is his sorrow?” Alice, in Atelier Versace, asked the Gryphon. '“Once,” sighed the Mock Turtle, “I was a real turtle.” Atelier Versace layered silk-tulle and chiffon-organza dress lined in lace. Donatella Versace and Rupert Everett are in Versace.

It you’ve seen the photos of the January 6, 2021 attempt to overthrow the presidential election, you understand that Christian nationalism lay at the center of the assault on our national capitol, just as it lay at the center of my terrorizing experience that October night decades ago.

To better understand that horrific day, just this weekend, I began reading ‘The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism’ by Paul D. Miller.

Designer Jean Paul Gaultier, a true friend to women, expressed the most important message of the Vogue 2003 fashion story in AOC’s opinion. As Alice sought his help in getting her life journey back on track, Gaultier playing the Cheshire Cat, answering Alice with clarity, not ambiguity:

“That depends a great deal on where you want to get to.”

THE CHESHIRE CAT: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here;” Alice asked sweetly of the cat with a grin as devilish as anything she had ever seen. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” replied our Cat, Jean Paul Gaultier. Blue silk-jersey draped dress by Gaultier Paris.

Clarity at Last

AOC has no desire to disrupt the respect for Galliano in China, with the big dustup now front and center. We believe in forgiveness and one’s ability to atone for past actions, which — in Galliano’s instance — may be unknown to China’s young people.

Jonathan Anderson — with the backing of Delphine Arnault we assume — sought to advance himself by acting as Galliano’s guide back to the limelight in his 2025 debut. I’ve never seen a PR campaign like the one behind Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson.

For a full year, he was second to US President Donald J Trump in my Apple News Feed. I found this absolute adoration of Anderson to borderline disgusting. The designer’s situation in China, and in America, is entirely more volatile than Galliano’s. He keeps taking me — Anne — to places I have no desire to revisit today or ever again in my life.

I find myself wondering if Dior was a quiet sponsor of the cancelled Galliano exhibit. The Met doesn’t do an exhibition like this one, without a lead sponsor.

For me, there is no turning back now in my fight for New Humanism values. And I have no confidence that today’s New Dior and I are on the same side in this battle ~ Anne