In his memoir The Chiffon Trenches (first published in May 2020), André Leon Talley recounts a meeting with US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour: "When discussing a long list of ideas about my February column one year, she said to me, from behind her desk, 'André, Vogue is not here to run a column about your ideas on Black History Month'."
It is surprising to read such a shocking and narrow-minded comment coming from such a well-established and revered figure. Why shouldn't readers of a fashion magazine be interested in a column about Black History Month? Are they so superficial that some glamorous fashion shots will satiate all their needs and why is it not possible to educate people through the pages of a fashion magazine? We may never find the answers to such questions, so let's leave Wintour behind and let's start February - that is Black History Month, a month dedicated to honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history - by remembering André Leon Talley. The fashion journalist and former editor-at-large of US Vogue died in January at 73 of a heart attack.
A unique personality in the world of fashion and style, André Leon Talley, the often sole black presence in the front rows at fashion weeks for decades, was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Durham, North Carolina, with his grandmother Bennie Frances Davies, and great-grandmother China.
As a child he loved them deeply and built a strong bond with her grandmother, spending his childhood going to school, attending church on Sundays and visiting the local library. Here he read Vogue and dreamt of living the lives of the people populating its pages. Obsessed with Jackie Kennedy and her style in clothes and interior design, through Vogue he discovered other icons of style, from Bunny Mellon, Jackie's best friend, to Lee, Princess Radziwill, her sister.
Influenced by fashion magazines, Talley majored in French studies, receiving a scholarship to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. His plan was pursuing doctoral studies and becoming a French teacher, but, while studying at Brown, he started experimenting with fashion, mixing vintage garments (among them a floor-length admiral's coat) and coming up with his own style.
His wardrobe caught the attention of affluent students at the Rhode Island School of Design and soon he made friends with Jane Kleinman and Reed Evins. Kleinman's father was the head of Kayser-Roth hosiery, while Reed's uncle was the shoe magnate David Evins. In 1974, after visiting with them New York and attending together the Coty Awards fashion show, Talley decided to abandon his studies and move to New York.
At the time Diana Vreeland was hiring volunteers to assist with her curation of the exhibition "Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design" and Talley was hired. He caught Vreeland's eye after he managed to reassemble together the chain mail dress worn by Miss Lana Turner in "The Prodigal" and became Vreeland's assistant. Talley learnt from her to speak "the language of style, fantasy and literature," as he stated in The Chiffon Trenches and a wonderful friendship started. Through Vreeland he was invited to parties attended by anyone who counted in New York, including Halston.
He became assistant at Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and had his big break when he interviewed Karl Lagerfeld in New York. The designer was impressed by Talley's thirst for knowledge; they shared a passion for 18th century French style and that meeting became the beginning of a friendship that lasted 40 years.
Talley then moved to work for Women's Wear Daily, owned by John Fairchild's Fairchild Publications, as fashion accessories editor. Though he didn't have a lot of money to buy clothes at the time, he created his own style matching Bermuda shorts and knee socks with hats and custom-made shirts that Lagerfeld had given him at the end of his interview. Talley started moving through the fashion circles, meeting designers, socialites and editors, and, after three years, he became WWD correspondent in Paris.
Talley relocated to the French capital where his friendship with Lagerfeld strengthened, and where he went to his first big Haute Couture shows. The first review of Yves Saint Laurent's Haute Couture collection established him in Paris and won him a promotion to European fashion editor of WWD and W. While in Paris, Talley also witnessed a Hubert de Givenchy show in the summer of 1978 that featured only black models wearing high fashion, a powerful statement.
Talley experienced racism in his life and in Paris he was often reminded that, while people were smiling to his face, they could be plotting against him: he resigned from WWD, after false rumors spread about him sleeping with all the local fashion designers, a plot orchestrated by Saint Laurent's former life partner and long-time business partner Pierre Bergé, jealous about Talley's raving reviews of Givenchy.
Back in New York, Talley worked at Ebony, the Black community's answer to Life, remaining with the magazine for a year and then working for other publications, before landing at Vogue in 1983 as a fashion news editor.
Here a long friendship started with Anna Wintour: together they would go to fashion shows in Europe four times a year. While Wintour became editor in chief at British Vogue, Talley worked as style editor at Vanity Fair, but they were reunited when Wintour went back to New York as editor in chief of House & Garden and named Talley creative director.
In 1988, Wintour took over as editor in chief of Vogue and Talley became creative director. As he wrote in The Chiffon Trenches, he had become "the highest-ranking black man in the history of fashion journalism" – Edward Enninful became indeed editor in chief of British Vogue only thirty years later.
Talley continued to work for Vogue as a Paris editor in the '90s, working on shoots with Helmut Newton. Wintour trusted Talley's impeccable taste and he was also the only person allowed in during the fitting for her couture gowns for special occasions such as the Met Gala.
Talley left Vogue in 1995, worked for Vanity Fair as style editor and then returned to Vogue in 1998 as editor at large (in the same year he walked the runway of Yohji Yamamoto's S/S 1999 collection).
For decades he was a close confidante of Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, Marc Jacobs and other designers and penned many interviews including one with Michelle Obama when she became First Lady and got her first Vogue cover.
For five years Talley also did interviews during the Met Gala, meeting guests at the top of the Metropolitan Museum of Art steps chatting up with celebrities on live-stream video for Vogue. Those were fun and light moments in which the interviewees, won by Talley's warmth, were happy to informally chat with him about their attires and expectations about the event, but the collaboration ended in 2018 when he was replaced by Vogue's digital staff.
In his life Talley remained loyal to two women - his grandmother, who showed him unconditional love, and Diana Vreeland, who gave him confidence and boldness. When he lost them, Talley took to binge eating and started struggling with weight. When he put on weight, his style also transitioned to another phase, from tailored suits to bespoke theatrical capes and flowing caftans at times made with silkscreen fabrics or decorated with rich embroideries (in The Chiffon Trenches, he stated he would have liked to be cremated in a caftan). These garments suggested a sense of ceremony and formality as well.
In the thin white world of Vogue, Talley was the exception and the exceptional nonconformist, but at a certain point in his career he felt that he had a hit a glass ceiling at the magazine as he was never chosen to do bigger jobs like being a consultant to the Costume Institute at The Met while other editors were curators. He was able to take up such roles at SCAD: the Savannah College of Art and Design celebrated him with a Fashion Icon Award and launched the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award that, throughout the years, was given to Oscar de la Renta, Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Manolo Blahnik, Stephen Burrows and Vivienne Westwood among the others.
At SCAD Talley was allowed to create important fashion exhibits in total creative freedom and curated further exhibitions about Oscar de la Renta that toured the States. In 2012, a gallery was also named in his honor at the award-winning SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah and he donated his personal library to SCAD. The "ALT Collection", including photos, artwork, and other memorabilia, is a precious resource for SCAD's students.
Talley wrote several books - Valentino, A.L.T.: André Leon Talley, A.L.T. 365+ and Little Black Dress, and contributed to Valentino: At the Emperor's Table and Cartier Panthère; he was the subject of the Kate Novack's 2017 documentary The Gospel According to André and appeared in cameos in Mariah Carey's "Say Somethin'" video in the movie Sex and the City 2.
A member of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, Talley found comfort and solace in faith: having been sexually abused when he was a child, Talley never found his true love in life and, though proudly gay, avoided sex throughout his life.
Having experienced racism and having lived through the golden age of fashion journalism, often seeing the best (being exposed to great fashion and meeting lovely people like Lee Radziwill who became one of his best friends) and the worst (falling in and out of friendship with Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour), Talley knew he had paved the way for those who followed him.
In The Chiffon Trenches he had one message to any young black man or any individual of any race or sexual identity, who think there is no place for them in the fashion world: "Go to school, get your degree, and follow your inner core. Make no apology for who you are. Personal style is outstanding when it's backed up by knowledge and confidence. Be confident, be bold, and use your voice to express that personal style."
Talley often remarked that it was his depth of knowledge of fashion history that was the number one skill that carried him throughout his career, what had truly made the difference in his life and had helped him climb the Vogue masthead.
He was proud of what he and other Black icons like Beyoncé - who appeared on the September 2018 Vogue cover, portrayed by photographer Tyler Mitchell, the first black man to shoot a cover image in the 125-year history of the magazine - had achieved ("I occupy white spaces, but I am a proud black man, who is proud of his ancestral past," he wrote).
In the preface to The Chiffon Trenches he wrote: "Whenever people ask for advice, I tell them two things: Never give up on your dreams, and do your homework. 'Homework' can mean a lot of things, but do your homework in life. Style will get you up the steps into the revolving door; substance and knowledge will allow you access to create new horizons."
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