July 4 - Christian Dior is in no hurry to name a successor to the disgraced John Galliano as creative director, its chief executive Sidney Toledano said on Monday.

Christian Dior is in no hurry to name a successor to the disgraced John Galliano- photo: afp

"You know when you ask young girls all the time when they are going to get married, they reply: When I find the right man," he told AFP as the Paris fashion house sent out its first post-Galliano haute couture collection.

Dior -- crown jewel of French tycoon Bernard Arnault's global luxury goods empire -- will "take all its time" in finding "a long-term solution", Toledano said, adding: "All options are open for the future."

With no permanent successor on the horizon, Monday's collection was overseen by Galliano's longtime right-hand man in the Dior atelier, Bill Gaytten, who is now in charge of the Dior-owned John Galliano label.

Gaytten took the applause at the end of the show at the Rodin museum with his first assistant Susanna Venegas.

Dior has been without a creative director since it sacked Galliano on the eve of the pret-a-porter collections in February as he faced allegations of making racist and anti-Semitic slurs.

At his trial last month, the Briton blamed drugs, alcohol and the pressures of his job for his conduct, adding he had no recollection of at least three incidents at a Paris cafe in which he is said to have made offensive remarks.

One of the incidents, captured in an amateur video, showed Galliano -- credited with reviving Dior's fortunes after he took over its creative helm in October 1996 -- apparently drunk and declaring a love for Hitler.

Judgement in his case is to be handed down on September 8.