Dior

When it comes to selling a fragrance, models are often frolicking through fields or seducing men, but Sofia Coppola created the perfect balance of sweet, fun, and sexy for Natalie Portman and Miss Dior. The playful film features Natalie in gorgeous Dior dresses and accessories and feminine makeup, all to the soundtrack of Grace Jones singing "La Vie en Rose." Now if only we could score that wardrobe every time we spritzed on Miss Dior.

John Galliano's lawyer won't specify just how much money in damages the designer is seeking in his lawsuit against Dior, but new information about his salary indicates it's going to be a fairly sizable sum.

"He was at the company for a long time and he had a big salary, so the sums demanded will necessarily be high," said Galliano's lawyer Chantal Giraud-van Gaver after the first hearing in his employment dispute against the company on Monday.

Just how much was Galliano making? Papers filed for the hearing revealed the designer was being paid a $1.3 million annual salary, on top of variable compensation (which means bonuses and stock options) as high as $900,000. Dior also paid him a percentage of its annual increase in sales and gave him an annual clothing allowance of $38,850, as well as a grooming budget for personal appearances of $77,700.

At his eponymous label, Galliano earned a salary of $2.6 million a year and a clothing allowance of $90,650. Galliano also acted as a consultant on catwalk shows, ad campaigns, and websites through a company he owns called Cheyenne Freedom, which was paid "hefty" fees. All told, in a good year, Dior could easily spend over $5 million on Galliano's salary and benefits.

When Galliano originally filed the suit in August, he was believed to have asked for over $18 million in damages, but WWD asked Giraud-van Gaver whether a figure approaching $8 million wasn't more accurate.

"If you add it all up, then probably yes, because if you are earning more than €3 million (over $4 million at current exchange) a year and you add severance pay on top, it quickly adds up," she said.

The Labor Relations Court that presided over Monday's hearing has yet to decide whether it can treat Galliano's case as a simply employee/employer dispute because of the nature of his relationship with Dior. The company's lawyer Jean Néret said Galliano was "no ordinary employee. In fact, I would go as far as saying he wasn't an employee at all," he said. "The complexity of his various contracts is sharply at odds with the image of a poor, defenseless employee which the opposing party is trying to project."

Looks like hiring Raf Simons was a really, really good business decision. Christian Dior recently announced that sales of its couture collections in 2012 were up some 24 percent over the previous year.

But it's not just the garments from Simons's debut Fall 2012 Couture collection, or Bill Gaytten's Spring 2012 Couture collection — which was well received — that experienced such high sales. Dior's various product ranges saw worldwide sales of €1.24 billion last year, or about $1.59 billion at current exchange. It amounts to a 17 percent growth in sales year over year. (It's worth noting that in 2011, the year John Galliano was dismissed from the brand, Dior's sales broke the $1 billion mark for the first time in its history.)

"These results reaffirm the exceptional quality of Dior's products and the powerful appeal of its stores," the company said in a statement.

That's not all those figures indicate. By and large, they say that the customer base for couture is growing — and that it isn't afraid to spend. Chanel's couturier Karl Lagerfeld told The New York Times recently that clients have sent their private planes to Paris to pick up his couture tailors. And in addition to New York, those planes now also come from nations with rapidly expanding or robust economies like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. In late 2011, Reuters reported that women in the Middle East were the world's biggest consumers of couture.

Then, too, there's Simons's desire to "change the psychology of people who are interested in couture." In an interview about his first couture collection for Dior, Simons said he wanted "to make it more dynamic, appeal to a person who has a different energy. A younger person, in mind, not necessarily in age."

Has he succeeded? His talent for making clothing a variety of women want to wear — and are willing to pay for — is clearly making a big difference at Dior.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Fern Mallis on stage at the 92nd Street Y this week, Marc Jacobs said he discussed not taking over for John Galliano in sessions with his psychiatrist.

"It was actually my psychiatrist who said, 'How is this going to improve the quality of your life?' and I said, 'It's not.' I mean, two more shows — and after Galliano, what he has done — when am I going to live my life?" Jacobs asked.

The designer also talked about growing up in New York City, studying at Parsons, and being treated for substance abuse. A few highlights from the conversation below.

On going to college: "Every day was like a fashion parade. There was a little troop of us. It was me, a girl named Susan Martin, Chris Iles, and Tracy Reese. The four of us were inseparable. We were the overachievers. We would do five times what was required just because we really enjoyed it."

On the critics: "There are very few, and I don't mean this in a bitchy way, journalists who I respect. I don't think a lot of them know what they're looking at. . . . I'm fine with constructive criticism but I'm not so good with stupidity. It's one thing to say 'I like or I don't like' but to misread or mislabel something or to be out of sorts because it was raining, or a late show, or you were hungry. That just all feels not valid."

On his sobriety: "I wouldn't say I'm 100 percent sober. What I'm saying is perfection is not my deal. Yeah, maybe I have had a glass of wine or a couple of whiskeys. Maybe I've smoked a joint or something like that. Or other things, but I'm mostly sober."

On what he tells aspiring designers: "What's worked for me is not quitting, being more passionate about what I do, and not giving up. And when I don't believe in myself, turning to other people who believe in me."

Photo by Joyce Culver, courtesy of 92nd Street Y.