One weekend in the mid-2000s John Galliano, then in his pomp as the king of Paris fashion, whose beautiful dresses and wild catwalk shows had transformed the house of Christian Dior into pop-cultural dynamite, came back to London for a weekend. He checked into the Ritz, where he proceeded to get so drunk that he spent four hours naked in a lift, telling guests who tried to enter that he was a lion, and warning them off with a growl. The Ritz called his office in Paris, who apologised, offering to cover the bills of any guests who had been...