After John Galliano lost his turn at wheel, it seems like almost everyone in fashion has been in the running to replace the Dior designer! First there was major buzz surrounding Givenchy‘s Riccardo Tisci, now Sarah Burton, creative director for Alexander McQueen, is taking the lead as a contender.

In an article from WWD, it was reported that advisers of Bernard Arnault (Dior chairman and LVMH CEO) “have submitted lists of suggested candidates, spanning such marquee names as Tom Ford, Hedi Slimane, Olivier Theyskens, Nicholas Ghesquière and Alber Elbaz, along with lesser known designers such as Haider Ackermann, Prabal Gurung and Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton.”

There’s so much speculation that it’s almost become a circus with everyone putting their name in the pot or other’s adding names to this growing pile. The list from Arnault’s team is obviously very broad and covers a significant span of talent. So why is Sarah Burton currently on top? That’s due to her her amazing designs for McQueen, but also because she’s one of the designers in line to dress Kate Middleton for her royal wedding. Apparently, Arnault loves the royals and is allegedly intrigued by the idea of re-launching Christian Dior around the couple. So if Burton design’s Kate’s dream dress, she could very well be shoe in for the coveted role.

All of this design talk has turned into a bad game show episode, at least on this show the audience doesn’t decide the results. Only time will tell, but hopefully all the speculation ends soon because this hoopla is really getting ridiculous.

[Editor Update, April 29, 2011]: Kate Middleton selected a Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen designed dress for her royal wedding.