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The Chiffon Trenches
During André Leon Talley's first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella.
There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion.
The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived--despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry--to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.
Woven throughout the book are also André's own personal struggles that have impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he has turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Férstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and ongoing faith, which have guided him since childhood.
There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion.
The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived--despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry--to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.
Woven throughout the book are also André's own personal struggles that have impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he has turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Férstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and ongoing faith, which have guided him since childhood.
284 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2020
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June 9, 2020
"I don't give a damn about clothes, I care about the people who wear them". John Fairchild, owner of Womens Wear Daily (WWD). And so it seems does Anna Wintour, the author with his constant name dropping of the 'private jets only' rich whom I've never heard of. In fact everyone in this rarefied world of 50K handbags.The common denominator is that all of them at one time or another (except the author) behave like absolute shits to people they don't consider important. Even if they are well-dressed.
A couple of examples. Karl Lagerfield, Talley's best bud for 40 years, gives fabulously expensive presents and then when he decides he doesn't like the person, demands them back and never acknowledges them again. (Actually despite the hagiographic praise by Talley of Lagerfield, he sounds as if he has raised self-indulgence to an almost godly virtue). He gives away presents, expensive ones with diamonds, within the hour of receiving them, as apparently Anna Wintour does. Naomi Campbell must be first on the plane she has chartered and mustn't be spoken to by underlings.
There are no revelations at all, not one, about Anna Wintour. She's a hard, cold businesswoman at the very top of her industry. Why would anyone expect her to be a soft, warm, person who puts people first? Mystifyingly, although she has cut him out of Vogue except as 'contributing editor' and cut him out of her life, she invites him to go along for all her fittings for her Chanel clothes (she no longer pays his expensive car bills for these) and he goes!
The world of haute couture is made of designers, mostly gay which might account for the preference for tall, thin, plain, androgenous (and very young) models of the Paris catwalks, their assistants and 'muses' who are mostly the daughters of the very wealthy and/or very famous , and the customers.
The customers are not usually tall, thin, young or androgenous looking and these days not plain, having been perfected by plastic surgery and their images by photoshop. They are the Ann Bass', Betty Catroux's, Sao Schlumbergers, Pat Altschuts and Deeda Blairs of this world. I don't know any of these names but they are described as 'socialites' which I suppose is what very wealthy people who go out a lot are called. There are also the Beyonces, Kardashians, Katy Perrys and Rene Zellwegers. But none, the known or the celebrities is model-shaped yet they all look fabulous in their clothes. They wouldn't spend upwards of $20,000 on a dress if they didn't. Yet the designers still want these tall girls with boy figures to model their clothes.
Talley never loses an opportunity to use the word beautiful, tell the reader if something was expensive (everything is), all the people who sat next to him at a fabulous whatever, how wonderful and erudite and charming and much loved he is. But despite that I liked him. Perhaps because he wove in his rather tragic childhood - not poor, his mother wore designer outfits - raised by his grandmother in the South because his mother wanted a more exciting life unencumbered by a child in New York. His father was equally discarded by her and his relationship with his parents was purely when they visited.
But he's disengenous and this is what brought a 2 star book down to a 1.5 star. (I really reserve 1 star books for despicable ones I want to rant about). He is very upset that Anna Wintour has not invited him to commentate on the Met Ball, I quote it (almost) in full as it gives the absolute flavour of this book and the writing:
"My replacement on the live-stream video was a young African American female, a YouTube star with some seventeen million followers...
What could this talented YouTuber offer? Surely she didn’t know what a martingale back is to a Balenciaga one-seamed coat. Or did she know that Katie Holmes’s Zac Posen dress, worn with great elegance, constructed with great technique, was an homage to the master architect Charles James, who was the subject of the 2014 Met exhibit Charles James: Beyond Fashion? Or that Cher’s incredible Bob Mackie jumpsuit, worn to the gala in December 1974, was the forerunner to all the see-through evening dresses designed by Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy couture, now worn by Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian in this century?
Like an extinct dodo bird, my brain, rich and replete with knowledge, has been relegated to the history books."
But nowhere in the book does he mention Tyra Banks' name, nowhere does he talk about his four seasons as a judge on America's Next Top Model. When he left he said it was all good, but the omission suggests that he didn't leave on good terms with Tyra or the producers.
Given that major omission in his life in fashion, I do not trust the book to be any more than a version of Talley's life he wants us to know about, it makes me suspect that it's not just the warts that have been omitted, but the limb that bears them has been totally cut off. So 1.5 stars rounded up because the author likes books!
A couple of examples. Karl Lagerfield, Talley's best bud for 40 years, gives fabulously expensive presents and then when he decides he doesn't like the person, demands them back and never acknowledges them again. (Actually despite the hagiographic praise by Talley of Lagerfield, he sounds as if he has raised self-indulgence to an almost godly virtue). He gives away presents, expensive ones with diamonds, within the hour of receiving them, as apparently Anna Wintour does. Naomi Campbell must be first on the plane she has chartered and mustn't be spoken to by underlings.
There are no revelations at all, not one, about Anna Wintour. She's a hard, cold businesswoman at the very top of her industry. Why would anyone expect her to be a soft, warm, person who puts people first? Mystifyingly, although she has cut him out of Vogue except as 'contributing editor' and cut him out of her life, she invites him to go along for all her fittings for her Chanel clothes (she no longer pays his expensive car bills for these) and he goes!
The world of haute couture is made of designers, mostly gay which might account for the preference for tall, thin, plain, androgenous (and very young) models of the Paris catwalks, their assistants and 'muses' who are mostly the daughters of the very wealthy and/or very famous , and the customers.
The customers are not usually tall, thin, young or androgenous looking and these days not plain, having been perfected by plastic surgery and their images by photoshop. They are the Ann Bass', Betty Catroux's, Sao Schlumbergers, Pat Altschuts and Deeda Blairs of this world. I don't know any of these names but they are described as 'socialites' which I suppose is what very wealthy people who go out a lot are called. There are also the Beyonces, Kardashians, Katy Perrys and Rene Zellwegers. But none, the known or the celebrities is model-shaped yet they all look fabulous in their clothes. They wouldn't spend upwards of $20,000 on a dress if they didn't. Yet the designers still want these tall girls with boy figures to model their clothes.
Talley never loses an opportunity to use the word beautiful, tell the reader if something was expensive (everything is), all the people who sat next to him at a fabulous whatever, how wonderful and erudite and charming and much loved he is. But despite that I liked him. Perhaps because he wove in his rather tragic childhood - not poor, his mother wore designer outfits - raised by his grandmother in the South because his mother wanted a more exciting life unencumbered by a child in New York. His father was equally discarded by her and his relationship with his parents was purely when they visited.
But he's disengenous and this is what brought a 2 star book down to a 1.5 star. (I really reserve 1 star books for despicable ones I want to rant about). He is very upset that Anna Wintour has not invited him to commentate on the Met Ball, I quote it (almost) in full as it gives the absolute flavour of this book and the writing:
"My replacement on the live-stream video was a young African American female, a YouTube star with some seventeen million followers...
What could this talented YouTuber offer? Surely she didn’t know what a martingale back is to a Balenciaga one-seamed coat. Or did she know that Katie Holmes’s Zac Posen dress, worn with great elegance, constructed with great technique, was an homage to the master architect Charles James, who was the subject of the 2014 Met exhibit Charles James: Beyond Fashion? Or that Cher’s incredible Bob Mackie jumpsuit, worn to the gala in December 1974, was the forerunner to all the see-through evening dresses designed by Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy couture, now worn by Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian in this century?
Like an extinct dodo bird, my brain, rich and replete with knowledge, has been relegated to the history books."
But nowhere in the book does he mention Tyra Banks' name, nowhere does he talk about his four seasons as a judge on America's Next Top Model. When he left he said it was all good, but the omission suggests that he didn't leave on good terms with Tyra or the producers.
Given that major omission in his life in fashion, I do not trust the book to be any more than a version of Talley's life he wants us to know about, it makes me suspect that it's not just the warts that have been omitted, but the limb that bears them has been totally cut off. So 1.5 stars rounded up because the author likes books!
February 9, 2021
I was actually disappointed. The word that comes to mind is shallow. It reads like a love letter to people who were good to him financially or emotionally and a pissy gram to those who did him wrong.
I wish he would have dug deeper and delivered more than gossip and evidence of his own importance never having received its proper due. His inability to deal with his own issues is glaring. He ignores or offhandedly dismisses the effect his weight and lack of mobility might have had on his position in an industry that is based on appearance. He admits he has never dealt with his own youthful trauma or his admitted issues with his own sexuality or his feelings about his treatment by the fashion industry. He relays facts but with little commentary or analysis about how the slights made him feel or the effects on his life or career.
I feel like he is a fantastic friend to those who are rich and good to him but just as bad as those he criticizes when dealing with those who are beneath him on the social ladder. I do admire his championing of others of color in the industry—at least those who met his standards, or were on his level, or were willing to pay for his expertise.
While he wants to make sure we all appreciate his importance to the fashion industry’s past, he doesn’t appear to care much about the future other than continuing his friendships with the world’s top designers (to keep the freebies rolling as well as continuing his career). Who will take his place? He doesn’t appear to have taken anyone under his wing or have mentored anyone. He doesn’t mention any protégés or gifted students he has tutored. The only young person he talks about is an LA Style editor whom he liked because of the way he dressed and his openness about his sexuality.
I opened it ready to be dazzled by his career and insights but finished feeling sad. He has lived an outwardly fabulous life and will leave behind a apartment full of fabulous furniture and things and bespoke shoes and suits and caftans. But so what. He had the opportunity to do so much more. To be so much more to students of color who wanted fashion careers. He’ll have a fabulous funeral full of all of the fabulous fashion folk. And then his stuff will be sold at auction. I wanted so much more. For him, and for all of us.
I wish he would have dug deeper and delivered more than gossip and evidence of his own importance never having received its proper due. His inability to deal with his own issues is glaring. He ignores or offhandedly dismisses the effect his weight and lack of mobility might have had on his position in an industry that is based on appearance. He admits he has never dealt with his own youthful trauma or his admitted issues with his own sexuality or his feelings about his treatment by the fashion industry. He relays facts but with little commentary or analysis about how the slights made him feel or the effects on his life or career.
I feel like he is a fantastic friend to those who are rich and good to him but just as bad as those he criticizes when dealing with those who are beneath him on the social ladder. I do admire his championing of others of color in the industry—at least those who met his standards, or were on his level, or were willing to pay for his expertise.
While he wants to make sure we all appreciate his importance to the fashion industry’s past, he doesn’t appear to care much about the future other than continuing his friendships with the world’s top designers (to keep the freebies rolling as well as continuing his career). Who will take his place? He doesn’t appear to have taken anyone under his wing or have mentored anyone. He doesn’t mention any protégés or gifted students he has tutored. The only young person he talks about is an LA Style editor whom he liked because of the way he dressed and his openness about his sexuality.
I opened it ready to be dazzled by his career and insights but finished feeling sad. He has lived an outwardly fabulous life and will leave behind a apartment full of fabulous furniture and things and bespoke shoes and suits and caftans. But so what. He had the opportunity to do so much more. To be so much more to students of color who wanted fashion careers. He’ll have a fabulous funeral full of all of the fabulous fashion folk. And then his stuff will be sold at auction. I wanted so much more. For him, and for all of us.
June 19, 2020
It's hard to believe now, but the 1990s to the early 200s was an era where fashion dominated the cultural landscape in a very different way than it does now. Fashion was dictated through the pages of magazines, by the models (Kate, Christy, Linda, Naomi, Claudia, and Cindy) who commanded not just fashion's gaze but also pop culture's, and above it all, the biggest, most exclusive (and yet you could get a look, once a month) arbiter of what was fashionable, Vogue as edited by Anna Wintour.
And with Anna came Andre. As an ardent reader of Vogue in the 1990s-2000s, I remember Andre Leon Talley. He was a man who could make a designer, a model, a socialite, etc. in his columns, which were breathless word explosions drawing parallels between shirts and history (for example). They were dramatic and excessive and fascinating.
As it turns out, so was Andre. A man from the rural south who managed to push past every social and racial barrier like they were nothing (he seems to only have realized the enormity of what he's accomplished in the past few years) to become not just a fixture in fashion, but a force, from the late 1970s to say, 2005 or so. (He was with Vogue for longer, but in his later and final years with Vogue, he and the rest of the magazine's staff, including and especially Anna were willfully and woefully ignorant of the increasing democratization of fashion.)
In The Chiffon Trenches, Talley goes through his career in fashion, from the beginning when he worked with Diana Vreeland, through the period where he was one of *the* arbiters of style. He and Karl Lagerfeld were "the best of friends" which explains why, for example, in the late 1990s, having Chanel anything was a huge deal and why Lagerfeld's awfullness was not just tolerated but celebrated. Karl was a monster, and something Andre Leon Talley apparently only recognized after Karl stopped speaking to him, but a lot of The Chiffon Trenches is Andre explaining how and why he didn't realize how awful people like Karl or Anna could be.
There is a fair amount of fashion gossip in this, but most of it is about people who no longer matter (Galliano) or who are dead. The anger I'd expected him to have towards Anna is tempered with the obvious longing he has to go back--back to when what he said mattered to the world of fashion, back to the days when his entire life was expensed, to when he could fly to Paris one day, stay for three weeks, return to New York and do it all over again. And yes, he is now aware that he lived in a gilded cage, even as one senses he misses the material trappings.
I found The Chiffon Trenches to be just like Andre's old Vogue columns--there's beautiful descriptions of gorgeous things, enough bitchy and dishy commentary to keep you hooked, and, sadly (for me) a lot of explaining away difficult or stupid behavior as "but then, it's only/just fashion." Which, of course, is something one can say, but it glides over what's underneath, which is a lot of ugliness, and ignoring it doesn't and can't make it disappear. We live in a world that is changing fast and demanding more and better changes still. Andre's lack of activism is disappointing but his legacy in/to fashion will be reckoned with for years to come. He will matter more than Anna (who I think has overstayed her time, who now only matters for what seems meaningless (Met Gala, cough)) ever did or will. And he should, because he loves and lives for fashion. And Anna Wintour, by his own admission, doesn't. She cares about power and though she's trying to fight it, her reign is over. And Andre is still here.
And with Anna came Andre. As an ardent reader of Vogue in the 1990s-2000s, I remember Andre Leon Talley. He was a man who could make a designer, a model, a socialite, etc. in his columns, which were breathless word explosions drawing parallels between shirts and history (for example). They were dramatic and excessive and fascinating.
As it turns out, so was Andre. A man from the rural south who managed to push past every social and racial barrier like they were nothing (he seems to only have realized the enormity of what he's accomplished in the past few years) to become not just a fixture in fashion, but a force, from the late 1970s to say, 2005 or so. (He was with Vogue for longer, but in his later and final years with Vogue, he and the rest of the magazine's staff, including and especially Anna were willfully and woefully ignorant of the increasing democratization of fashion.)
In The Chiffon Trenches, Talley goes through his career in fashion, from the beginning when he worked with Diana Vreeland, through the period where he was one of *the* arbiters of style. He and Karl Lagerfeld were "the best of friends" which explains why, for example, in the late 1990s, having Chanel anything was a huge deal and why Lagerfeld's awfullness was not just tolerated but celebrated. Karl was a monster, and something Andre Leon Talley apparently only recognized after Karl stopped speaking to him, but a lot of The Chiffon Trenches is Andre explaining how and why he didn't realize how awful people like Karl or Anna could be.
There is a fair amount of fashion gossip in this, but most of it is about people who no longer matter (Galliano) or who are dead. The anger I'd expected him to have towards Anna is tempered with the obvious longing he has to go back--back to when what he said mattered to the world of fashion, back to the days when his entire life was expensed, to when he could fly to Paris one day, stay for three weeks, return to New York and do it all over again. And yes, he is now aware that he lived in a gilded cage, even as one senses he misses the material trappings.
I found The Chiffon Trenches to be just like Andre's old Vogue columns--there's beautiful descriptions of gorgeous things, enough bitchy and dishy commentary to keep you hooked, and, sadly (for me) a lot of explaining away difficult or stupid behavior as "but then, it's only/just fashion." Which, of course, is something one can say, but it glides over what's underneath, which is a lot of ugliness, and ignoring it doesn't and can't make it disappear. We live in a world that is changing fast and demanding more and better changes still. Andre's lack of activism is disappointing but his legacy in/to fashion will be reckoned with for years to come. He will matter more than Anna (who I think has overstayed her time, who now only matters for what seems meaningless (Met Gala, cough)) ever did or will. And he should, because he loves and lives for fashion. And Anna Wintour, by his own admission, doesn't. She cares about power and though she's trying to fight it, her reign is over. And Andre is still here.
May 20, 2020
It was nice, afternoon read, but, sadly to say, nothing in this will resonate with me.
I noticed a lot of book critics' frustration with the lack of activism in this book. It seems many think Mr. Talley would be the perfect candidate for that kind of literature; a kind of fashionista Maya Angelou. I hate when reviewers do that. He has no obligation to produce that kind of perspective, because of his race.
Yet, I did still find plenty of frustration about the perspective he did choose, or lack thereof. This memoir is more Chiffon than Trenches. It's very frothy, despite Mr. Talley being right in the middle of many pivotal moments in the global fashion industry. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know or could've easily gotten from other books that are more engaging.
This is my third book by a major Vogue employee. The others are by Grace Coddington and Grace Mirabella, who make an appearance in here, too. There are probably more books I read by lesser important Vogue employees or people who have / had tied to Vogue. I kept comparing this to Grace Mirbella's In and Out of Vogue, and wondered how much I should talk about the other editor's book in comparison.
Because Mirabella has a presence in Mr. Talley's book, I feel better about comparing the two. Grace Mirabella wrote a memoir that brought her editor's eye to the reader. I could feel what it was like to be in her head, while she was at Vogue. She explained her decisions so well. She provided her views on fashion, other people's views on fashion, and the general direction the industry was going, and the eccentric moments those shifts produced. It was thrilling to read, even during chapters on the sad parts of her life. It takes guts to write something like 'The 80's were not my time,' referring to the end of her tenure as the editor in chief.
But, with Mr. Talley, you know where we went, and who he met, and what jobs he had, but not much else. Key figures in the industry obviously recognized his eye for aesthetics. But what about the famous "eye" is so great gets left out. And that's only the beginning. In fact, it was hard to figure his opinions on anything.
Here's an example that kept coming to mind. Andre knew Yves Saint Laurant, Oscar de la Renta, Givenchy, Lagerfeld, and any more. They all had partners they threw parties with and invited many other famous people. Did it ever occur to Mr. Talley to explain how these people got away with openly homosexual relationships in the 70's? What about the fashion industry at the time made this permissible?
In fact, there's so much he describes about the world of magazines from that era that wouldn't seem conceivable today. High fashion in the 70's and 80's wasn't only ultra-glamorous, but also reckless. There were no boundaries between journalists and fashion designers. They were all friends, and no one seems to think about how this makes for biased coverage. WWD editors like John Fairchild uses his magazine to tear down careers for the sake of personal Vendetta. How does no one have a problem with this? It was a media free-for-all that had no consequences to the people responsible for such a big influence.
Even for a tell-all, it was rather cold. Oddly enough, the name dropping was the best part, which is usually the most annoying thing about these kinds of stories. Because he kept the same friends for a good chunk of his life, I got to read about all the famous names throughout the decades, and saw how they matured. Who knew, Lagerfeld, who was mainly known for reviving the stuffy Chanel brand was, at one time, daring and wacky, at Chloe?
Going back to Grace Mirabella, through a lot about her accounts of Vogue life match Mr. Talley's, they do seem to have differing views. A lot of this is speculation, because, as I said before, Mr. Talley isn't very good at giving his views. From Mirabella's perspective, Anna Wintour was shoved on her without rhyme or reason and she had no "real use." Mr. Talley explains how Anna played the Vogue game under Mirabella, and how Anna used her contrasting personality to overthrow her boss. Surprisingly, the way Mr. Talley describes Mirabella running Vogue matches how Mirabella described herself, which goes to show how good Mirabella is at reflecting on herself. Mirabella was calculated, meticulous, and hypercritical. To my shock, Wintour let creativity roam free. It seems she was better and spotting and training great talent than setting trends herself. Though Icy, she definitely cared about nurturing long-lasting careers for the talented. Props, Wintour! Mr. Talley, obviously, falls into the school of Wintour. What he preferred about her way of steering the Vogue ship I wish he went into better.
Ultimately, the reason he had such a long-lasting career is he was such a good friend to so many people and knew how to get a job done. But his book doesn't make me feel any of the closeness that got him so far.
I noticed a lot of book critics' frustration with the lack of activism in this book. It seems many think Mr. Talley would be the perfect candidate for that kind of literature; a kind of fashionista Maya Angelou. I hate when reviewers do that. He has no obligation to produce that kind of perspective, because of his race.
Yet, I did still find plenty of frustration about the perspective he did choose, or lack thereof. This memoir is more Chiffon than Trenches. It's very frothy, despite Mr. Talley being right in the middle of many pivotal moments in the global fashion industry. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know or could've easily gotten from other books that are more engaging.
This is my third book by a major Vogue employee. The others are by Grace Coddington and Grace Mirabella, who make an appearance in here, too. There are probably more books I read by lesser important Vogue employees or people who have / had tied to Vogue. I kept comparing this to Grace Mirbella's In and Out of Vogue, and wondered how much I should talk about the other editor's book in comparison.
Because Mirabella has a presence in Mr. Talley's book, I feel better about comparing the two. Grace Mirabella wrote a memoir that brought her editor's eye to the reader. I could feel what it was like to be in her head, while she was at Vogue. She explained her decisions so well. She provided her views on fashion, other people's views on fashion, and the general direction the industry was going, and the eccentric moments those shifts produced. It was thrilling to read, even during chapters on the sad parts of her life. It takes guts to write something like 'The 80's were not my time,' referring to the end of her tenure as the editor in chief.
But, with Mr. Talley, you know where we went, and who he met, and what jobs he had, but not much else. Key figures in the industry obviously recognized his eye for aesthetics. But what about the famous "eye" is so great gets left out. And that's only the beginning. In fact, it was hard to figure his opinions on anything.
Here's an example that kept coming to mind. Andre knew Yves Saint Laurant, Oscar de la Renta, Givenchy, Lagerfeld, and any more. They all had partners they threw parties with and invited many other famous people. Did it ever occur to Mr. Talley to explain how these people got away with openly homosexual relationships in the 70's? What about the fashion industry at the time made this permissible?
In fact, there's so much he describes about the world of magazines from that era that wouldn't seem conceivable today. High fashion in the 70's and 80's wasn't only ultra-glamorous, but also reckless. There were no boundaries between journalists and fashion designers. They were all friends, and no one seems to think about how this makes for biased coverage. WWD editors like John Fairchild uses his magazine to tear down careers for the sake of personal Vendetta. How does no one have a problem with this? It was a media free-for-all that had no consequences to the people responsible for such a big influence.
Even for a tell-all, it was rather cold. Oddly enough, the name dropping was the best part, which is usually the most annoying thing about these kinds of stories. Because he kept the same friends for a good chunk of his life, I got to read about all the famous names throughout the decades, and saw how they matured. Who knew, Lagerfeld, who was mainly known for reviving the stuffy Chanel brand was, at one time, daring and wacky, at Chloe?
Going back to Grace Mirabella, through a lot about her accounts of Vogue life match Mr. Talley's, they do seem to have differing views. A lot of this is speculation, because, as I said before, Mr. Talley isn't very good at giving his views. From Mirabella's perspective, Anna Wintour was shoved on her without rhyme or reason and she had no "real use." Mr. Talley explains how Anna played the Vogue game under Mirabella, and how Anna used her contrasting personality to overthrow her boss. Surprisingly, the way Mr. Talley describes Mirabella running Vogue matches how Mirabella described herself, which goes to show how good Mirabella is at reflecting on herself. Mirabella was calculated, meticulous, and hypercritical. To my shock, Wintour let creativity roam free. It seems she was better and spotting and training great talent than setting trends herself. Though Icy, she definitely cared about nurturing long-lasting careers for the talented. Props, Wintour! Mr. Talley, obviously, falls into the school of Wintour. What he preferred about her way of steering the Vogue ship I wish he went into better.
Ultimately, the reason he had such a long-lasting career is he was such a good friend to so many people and knew how to get a job done. But his book doesn't make me feel any of the closeness that got him so far.
February 10, 2020
ALT's memoir is a courtier's diary of late 20th and early 20th-century high fashion. An insider who is nevertheless always acutely aware of his position at court, as well as his humble roots, Talley provides a double (triple? quadruple?)-consciousness perspective on this exclusive, tiny, and high-flown world ruled entirely by taste that absolutely no one else could provide. Essential fashion, publishing, and North Carolina history.
Also, the sentence "My favorite retreat was the city library in downtown Durham, North Carolina" pierced my heart, as somebody who worked there with hundreds of beautiful, creative, and fierce kids like ALT.
Also, the sentence "My favorite retreat was the city library in downtown Durham, North Carolina" pierced my heart, as somebody who worked there with hundreds of beautiful, creative, and fierce kids like ALT.
May 13, 2021
"...The power in knowledge cannot be understated. Whenever people ask me 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. My great depth of knowledge is the number one skill I possess and has carried me throughout my career to this day. Rivers deep, mountains high. All the people who mattered in my life have approached me because of my knowledge. Throughout my career, designers liked spending time with me because I studied, and I studied, and I resolved to learn as much as I could."
In the documentary The September Issue, two of the senior staffers at Vogue made an immediate impression on me. The first was Grace Coddington (who has already published her own account of her time in the industry, Grace: A Memoir), and the second was Andre Leon Talley. He was a larger than life figure in every sense of the word: a massive black man in a sea of petite white women, swanning around the offices dressed in silk caftans and fur coats, who sat in a meeting and declared "I am starved for beauty!" His memoir has been on my to-read list for a long time.
Andre Leon Talley got his start as a photography assistant for Women's Wear Daily when he was a recent college graduate; in record time, he was living in Paris, covering fashion shows, and becoming friends (well, "friends" is maybe a step too far, but we'll get there) with the likes of Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld. It's all detailed here, from the early days of high fashion shows, to inner-office drama at Vogue, to Met Gala dirt, to Talley's complicated relationship with the devil in Prada herself, Anna Wintour.
If you're on the fence about whether or not this book is for you, there's a very simple test to help you decide - just read this passage about the first Galliano runway show Talley saw:
"The synopsis of the fashion show had been written by Amanda Harlech, Galliano’s creative director and muse. Her idea was that the models were Russian tsarinas, leaving the Winter Palace during the revolution, and ending up in Scotland on their way to Ascot in England."
Now, you're going to have one of two reactions to that passage. If you read it and thought, "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, these people need to go outside", then The Chiffon Trenches is not your jam. If, however, you read it and thought, "cool" (or, like me: "...go on") then you're gonna have a good time.
As far as fashion memoirs go, Talley's is especially interesting because of his unique perspective. High fashion was, and remains, an industry dominated by the rich, thin, and white. Talley - a black man from small-town North Carolina who continues to struggle with his weight - is an anomaly in more ways than one. His race is what most clearly sets him apart from his contemporaries in the industry, and Talley could have easily sidestepped this entirely, and written a straightforward memoir about his rise in the fashion world without hammering this fact in. Instead, he addresses it head on, and isn't afraid to acknowledge that the business he's devoted his life to is uhhhhh...not exactly a bastion of equality.
"Racism is systemic everywhere, but no one in Paris talked about race. Racism was always underneath, sleeping below the epidermis of everything I did. It was mostly dormant but would raise its head every so often. I knew my very being was shocking to some people. That I was black, sure, but also that I was so tall and thin, that I spoke French meticulously. I had a strong opinion and I looked people in the eye. My knowledge and my passion and love for fashion and literature and art and history gave me confidence. I was in Paris to edit and style pictures, and I intended to do so successfully. I was living my moment. My dream achieved.
I didn’t have time back then to contemplate my plight as a black man making it in the world. I was too busy trying to make it work. For the most part I barely noticed it and only now, looking back, do I realize the blinders I had to keep on in order to survive. Instead, I internalized and buried the pain deep within myself, as black men and women have been forced to do time and time again."
When Talley recounts the racism he encountered, both micro and macro, he's open and honest about the fact that his success rested largely on his ability to ignore and compartmentalize the prejudice he was up against. One of the most startlingly clear-eyed statements in the book comes when he writes, simply, "I’m not belittling myself to say my strength was in my ability to be beside a small, great, powerful white woman and encourage her vision."
The real dirt comes, of course, when it's time to discuss Talley's long and fraught relationship with Anna Wintour. In her own memoir, Grace Coddington shrugged off Wintour's portrayal in The Devil Wears Prada as the exaggerations of a bitter and "disloyal" ex-employee; Talley all but confirms that Miranda Priestly is an accurate stand-in for Wintour:
"I was a friend to Anna and I knew I mattered back in our earlier days together. Today, I would love for her to say something human and sincere to me. …there are so many people who worked for her and have suffered huge emotional scarring. Women and men, designers, photographers, stylists; the list is endless. She has dashed so many on a frayed and tattered heap during her powerful rule."
And yet, Talley still desperately craves her love and acceptance. This is a theme throughout the book. Starting with his early days in Paris, Talley explains how people like Warhol and Lagerfeld would befriend people and then, without warning, cut them off completely. Lagerfeld in particular had a habit of bestowing expensive antiques on people as gifts, and then later demanding they be returned. Talley's acceptance of this weirdness makes more sense once you realize that the people in his social circle are just...like that. When recounting how he fell out of favor with Lagerfeld (merely for attempting to intervene on behalf of a woman on Lagerfeld's blacklist), Talley seems to be shrugging resignedly behind the text, as if a fashion journalist being permanently banned from attending Chanel shows is a natural consequence of crossing Lagerfeld. In another illuminating passage, Talley is traveling on Naomi Campbell's private jet and warns his underling (with complete seriousness and no self-awareness whatsoever) not to speak to or even look at Ms. Campbell. Galliano's anti-Semitic rant that got him fired from his own label is hand-waved away, and Talley assures us that he's not a bad guy, really. Over and over, we see Talley coming up against people who are vapid, cruel, callous monsters. And all he wants is to be their friend. Even as Talley is telling us what a terrible person Anna Wintour is, it's clear that he would happily push his own grandmother into traffic if it meant being allowed back into the inner circle.
Talley himself is not exempt from the casual cruelty demonstrated by his friends: until I read another review of this memoir, I'd completely forgotten about his stint as a judge on America's Next Top Model. Talley and Tyra Banks had a falling-out, so not only does he never mention his time on her show, but Banks' name never appears once in this entire memoir - a memoir that specifically makes space to highlight the influence of black people in fashion. Like his buddy Lagerfeld, Talley bestows gifts, and snatches them back.
It goes without saying that your mileage will vary when it comes to reading the exploits of shallow, spoiled, careless fashion people - but to dismiss this memoir because Talley is not a good person is to miss the point. I don't watch Hannibal because I want to watch nice people doing good things. Sometimes, you just want to watch beautiful monsters tear each other apart.
In the documentary The September Issue, two of the senior staffers at Vogue made an immediate impression on me. The first was Grace Coddington (who has already published her own account of her time in the industry, Grace: A Memoir), and the second was Andre Leon Talley. He was a larger than life figure in every sense of the word: a massive black man in a sea of petite white women, swanning around the offices dressed in silk caftans and fur coats, who sat in a meeting and declared "I am starved for beauty!" His memoir has been on my to-read list for a long time.
Andre Leon Talley got his start as a photography assistant for Women's Wear Daily when he was a recent college graduate; in record time, he was living in Paris, covering fashion shows, and becoming friends (well, "friends" is maybe a step too far, but we'll get there) with the likes of Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld. It's all detailed here, from the early days of high fashion shows, to inner-office drama at Vogue, to Met Gala dirt, to Talley's complicated relationship with the devil in Prada herself, Anna Wintour.
If you're on the fence about whether or not this book is for you, there's a very simple test to help you decide - just read this passage about the first Galliano runway show Talley saw:
"The synopsis of the fashion show had been written by Amanda Harlech, Galliano’s creative director and muse. Her idea was that the models were Russian tsarinas, leaving the Winter Palace during the revolution, and ending up in Scotland on their way to Ascot in England."
Now, you're going to have one of two reactions to that passage. If you read it and thought, "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, these people need to go outside", then The Chiffon Trenches is not your jam. If, however, you read it and thought, "cool" (or, like me: "...go on") then you're gonna have a good time.
As far as fashion memoirs go, Talley's is especially interesting because of his unique perspective. High fashion was, and remains, an industry dominated by the rich, thin, and white. Talley - a black man from small-town North Carolina who continues to struggle with his weight - is an anomaly in more ways than one. His race is what most clearly sets him apart from his contemporaries in the industry, and Talley could have easily sidestepped this entirely, and written a straightforward memoir about his rise in the fashion world without hammering this fact in. Instead, he addresses it head on, and isn't afraid to acknowledge that the business he's devoted his life to is uhhhhh...not exactly a bastion of equality.
"Racism is systemic everywhere, but no one in Paris talked about race. Racism was always underneath, sleeping below the epidermis of everything I did. It was mostly dormant but would raise its head every so often. I knew my very being was shocking to some people. That I was black, sure, but also that I was so tall and thin, that I spoke French meticulously. I had a strong opinion and I looked people in the eye. My knowledge and my passion and love for fashion and literature and art and history gave me confidence. I was in Paris to edit and style pictures, and I intended to do so successfully. I was living my moment. My dream achieved.
I didn’t have time back then to contemplate my plight as a black man making it in the world. I was too busy trying to make it work. For the most part I barely noticed it and only now, looking back, do I realize the blinders I had to keep on in order to survive. Instead, I internalized and buried the pain deep within myself, as black men and women have been forced to do time and time again."
When Talley recounts the racism he encountered, both micro and macro, he's open and honest about the fact that his success rested largely on his ability to ignore and compartmentalize the prejudice he was up against. One of the most startlingly clear-eyed statements in the book comes when he writes, simply, "I’m not belittling myself to say my strength was in my ability to be beside a small, great, powerful white woman and encourage her vision."
The real dirt comes, of course, when it's time to discuss Talley's long and fraught relationship with Anna Wintour. In her own memoir, Grace Coddington shrugged off Wintour's portrayal in The Devil Wears Prada as the exaggerations of a bitter and "disloyal" ex-employee; Talley all but confirms that Miranda Priestly is an accurate stand-in for Wintour:
"I was a friend to Anna and I knew I mattered back in our earlier days together. Today, I would love for her to say something human and sincere to me. …there are so many people who worked for her and have suffered huge emotional scarring. Women and men, designers, photographers, stylists; the list is endless. She has dashed so many on a frayed and tattered heap during her powerful rule."
And yet, Talley still desperately craves her love and acceptance. This is a theme throughout the book. Starting with his early days in Paris, Talley explains how people like Warhol and Lagerfeld would befriend people and then, without warning, cut them off completely. Lagerfeld in particular had a habit of bestowing expensive antiques on people as gifts, and then later demanding they be returned. Talley's acceptance of this weirdness makes more sense once you realize that the people in his social circle are just...like that. When recounting how he fell out of favor with Lagerfeld (merely for attempting to intervene on behalf of a woman on Lagerfeld's blacklist), Talley seems to be shrugging resignedly behind the text, as if a fashion journalist being permanently banned from attending Chanel shows is a natural consequence of crossing Lagerfeld. In another illuminating passage, Talley is traveling on Naomi Campbell's private jet and warns his underling (with complete seriousness and no self-awareness whatsoever) not to speak to or even look at Ms. Campbell. Galliano's anti-Semitic rant that got him fired from his own label is hand-waved away, and Talley assures us that he's not a bad guy, really. Over and over, we see Talley coming up against people who are vapid, cruel, callous monsters. And all he wants is to be their friend. Even as Talley is telling us what a terrible person Anna Wintour is, it's clear that he would happily push his own grandmother into traffic if it meant being allowed back into the inner circle.
Talley himself is not exempt from the casual cruelty demonstrated by his friends: until I read another review of this memoir, I'd completely forgotten about his stint as a judge on America's Next Top Model. Talley and Tyra Banks had a falling-out, so not only does he never mention his time on her show, but Banks' name never appears once in this entire memoir - a memoir that specifically makes space to highlight the influence of black people in fashion. Like his buddy Lagerfeld, Talley bestows gifts, and snatches them back.
It goes without saying that your mileage will vary when it comes to reading the exploits of shallow, spoiled, careless fashion people - but to dismiss this memoir because Talley is not a good person is to miss the point. I don't watch Hannibal because I want to watch nice people doing good things. Sometimes, you just want to watch beautiful monsters tear each other apart.
May 26, 2020
Let me start this review by saying that I think Andre Leon Talley has style and aplomb. His achievements in fashion and the fact that he paved the way for many people of color in the fashion industry are incredibly important. BUT. This book just made me sad. It reads like a hyper materialistic social climbing high school girl’s diary. His sycophantic relationships with Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld (and others) are exceedingly cringeworthy and hard to read. On one page, he writes about how he is best soul friends with a very important person in fashion and their confidant, details the very expensive gifts he buys for them and then a few pages later, they freeze him out and act like he doesn’t exist. But he still claims they are true and dear friends. I was also embarrassed for him at the fact that he mentions sweated and obsessed over an invitation to Lee Radziwill’s funeral (who freaks out over a funeral invite other than a self obsessed boob?) for days and then acted like he won the lottery when he was indeed invited. In the end, I feel sorry for him. He had/has zero boundaries between his work and his personal life, gave his time, health and intelligence to people and a company who cared nothing for him and is very lonely.
June 30, 2020
You know that axiom, 'if you've got nothing good to say about someone then say nothing'? Seems like ALT has internalised it. Which may be very good for his soul but it makes this book duller that I expected. It's not so much chiffon 'trenches', as chiffon cosy-up-together-on the frow.
ALT has had an amazing career and he seems to know everyone in the fashion/social world. His love of style and clothes comes over as absolutely genuine - but it's quite hard to get a handle on his life and career from this book. And that's partly because he withholds. Ok, there's no rule that says he *must* dish the dirt - but the constant stream of how wonderful *everyone* is and what good friends they are (up until the point at which they ditch him...) doesn't make for the best reading.
After the early years, it's quite hard to even get a handle on what ALT's actual job is: he flits around with Anna Wintour (till she cuts him dead) and seems to socialise full time. There are brief mentions of the abuse which stifled his ability to have healthy sexual relationships and his toxic relationship with food, but even these painful revelations are submerged beneath a kind of thankfulness that he's had such a glorious life.
I'd love to read a biography of ALT - this is fun but it feels distinctly like there's another story there just waiting to be told.
ALT has had an amazing career and he seems to know everyone in the fashion/social world. His love of style and clothes comes over as absolutely genuine - but it's quite hard to get a handle on his life and career from this book. And that's partly because he withholds. Ok, there's no rule that says he *must* dish the dirt - but the constant stream of how wonderful *everyone* is and what good friends they are (up until the point at which they ditch him...) doesn't make for the best reading.
After the early years, it's quite hard to even get a handle on what ALT's actual job is: he flits around with Anna Wintour (till she cuts him dead) and seems to socialise full time. There are brief mentions of the abuse which stifled his ability to have healthy sexual relationships and his toxic relationship with food, but even these painful revelations are submerged beneath a kind of thankfulness that he's had such a glorious life.
I'd love to read a biography of ALT - this is fun but it feels distinctly like there's another story there just waiting to be told.
August 5, 2020
This book mostly made me sad. André Leon Talley has written a book supposedly telling it all - and he does tell a lot of things about the inner workings of Vogue, of the micro-aggressions he endured as one of the very few black people in the fashion world and as a black gay man in particular. Weirdly enough I never got a concrete understanding how much of the awful treatment he received was due to his identity and how much was just the way the fashion world worked, and it made me so very sad for him. I enjoyed being able to glimpse behind the curtain and I enjoyed how petty André Leon Talley allowed himself to be. I do think the book promises something in the introduction it then never delivers on: Talley does not spend a lot of time ruminating on the role of race in his trajectory, but rather tells of his life as he experienced it - and apparently he experienced it mainly as a means to wear extravagant clothes which he describes in minute detail, from the way things looked to where he got them to who complimented him on them - and that part of the book I was not that keen on. Reading between the lines, Talley seems profoundly lonely and I sometimes wished he would be more honest about that - but then again, he can choose to tell his story in any way he wishes.
I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
August 17, 2020
This book made me sad. Sad for ALT. Sad for the intense and mean personalities that seem to work in this field. Sad that ALT has had so much trauma and hurt in his life but covers it with food, caftans, and witticisms.
May 31, 2020
a deeply flawed book....and yet I relished every page.
May 28, 2020
4 stars. I loved this book. Although it’s been described as a fashion world “tell all,” I think it’s far more than that. A keenly described and often tragic look at the fashion industry from a man who rose to its highest heights only to be cast out when he got older and heavier. A beautifully written memoir that affected me more than I expected.
June 17, 2020
It's all here, what is wrong with the fashion industry, the racism, the sociopathy, the narcissism, the sheer decadence. BUT there is also an incredible story of one man's triumph in an impossible arena not built for him. What an incredible story. I loved this book and this man.
Read
June 20, 2023My reason for reading this memoir was quite plain and simple: I was being nosy. The basic and fundamental kind of curiosity that fuels gossip and casual conversation; might cause one to miss a stop while eavesdropping; might bring together foes for a moment just for the exchange of petty bits of information; it absorbs and excites when one is the audience, and, of course, enrages when one becomes its subject. For some reason, mostly the commentary on the book and documentary when they came out, I thought this book would be more scathing than it turned out to be. I went in expecting a renunciation of the fashion industry from one of its strongest and most knowledgeable bastions, and, of course as these things usually turn out, I was wrong. There is some criticism, some disagreement of the way matters are conducted, even a bit of witty subtle insult I usually like or what the pioneers of queer ballroom culture succinctly called a read.
André Leon Talley spent his entire adult life dedicated to fashion. There are few individuals that could boast of working with and knowing some of the most influential people in American and European fashion and art. From being mentored by Diana Vreeland, to working for Andy Warhol, being friends with Karl Lagerfeld, and being a friend/acquaintance/colleague/subordinate/advisor to Anna Wintour, André was a living library of fashion and art.
His childhood was a lonely one, Black and gay and from a working class background in the American South, he worked and learned and found success in an industry that is notoriously rigid for upholding whiteness, youth, thinness, and opulence. He was raised by his loving grandmother, dealt with issues of abandonment from his mother, and was bullied and sexually abused when he was a child. So rather stark and horrid conditions compared to the heights of the fashion world he eventually rose to where he moved with big time financiers, first ladies, monarchs, fashion juggernauts, celebrities and socialites.
Most times, as he himself professes, André was the only person of colour in these spaces. Although he protests the lack of diversity and inclusion in this book, he fully immersed himself into this world during his lifetime and mourned it when it no longer needed him. From his own account the fashion world is vicious, vain, superficial; where one can be discarded at any moment. He himself had to deal with a lot of sabotage and racism while in it. His way of pushing back against this was through the few instances he called quiet activism. Such as the Vanity Fair spread where Naomi Campbell plays Scarlett O'Hara and the roles of master and servant are reversed by the Black and white models in the photoshoot.
Following his eventual departure from Vogue and the mistreatment he experienced from its head Anna Wintour, I recall harsh judgements that were passed on ALT. That he had been spat out by the same machinery that he had oiled and kept going, happily lapping at the crumbs that were thrown at him while ignoring the other Black and persons of colour that worked in the same industry. There might have been some truth in these criticisms, but after reading this memoir I can't help but disagree on some level. Well not disagree exactly, but empathize with its author on a level. I think it's unreasonable to reduce a life and career to the moments of snobbery, cowardice and selfishness that occured and represent it as the whole. Very few wouldn't be seduced with the material and status benefits such a situation provides.
Which made me uneasy to review this, since implicit in whatever criticism is that it is made from a higher moral ground than the subject being critiqued. And whatever words I come with, long review as this has already turned out to be, will reduce this memoir, which in itself condensed a life. So, a square root of a square root of sorts.
In the end this was a fascinating memoir of a fascinating life. André was gifted, brilliant, charming, and vain; gracious and forgiving to those who were in his circles or, he felt, above him; severe and unforgiving to those that, he felt, weren't. The writing is direct and matter-of-fact when narrating biographical information, and leaps and pulsates when André talks about fashion. His descriptions of a Galliano collection, décor in an apartment, his grandmother's church clothes, and whatever else he found beautiful and caught his eye were magnificent to read.
André Leon Talley spent his entire adult life dedicated to fashion. There are few individuals that could boast of working with and knowing some of the most influential people in American and European fashion and art. From being mentored by Diana Vreeland, to working for Andy Warhol, being friends with Karl Lagerfeld, and being a friend/acquaintance/colleague/subordinate/advisor to Anna Wintour, André was a living library of fashion and art.
His childhood was a lonely one, Black and gay and from a working class background in the American South, he worked and learned and found success in an industry that is notoriously rigid for upholding whiteness, youth, thinness, and opulence. He was raised by his loving grandmother, dealt with issues of abandonment from his mother, and was bullied and sexually abused when he was a child. So rather stark and horrid conditions compared to the heights of the fashion world he eventually rose to where he moved with big time financiers, first ladies, monarchs, fashion juggernauts, celebrities and socialites.
Most times, as he himself professes, André was the only person of colour in these spaces. Although he protests the lack of diversity and inclusion in this book, he fully immersed himself into this world during his lifetime and mourned it when it no longer needed him. From his own account the fashion world is vicious, vain, superficial; where one can be discarded at any moment. He himself had to deal with a lot of sabotage and racism while in it. His way of pushing back against this was through the few instances he called quiet activism. Such as the Vanity Fair spread where Naomi Campbell plays Scarlett O'Hara and the roles of master and servant are reversed by the Black and white models in the photoshoot.
Following his eventual departure from Vogue and the mistreatment he experienced from its head Anna Wintour, I recall harsh judgements that were passed on ALT. That he had been spat out by the same machinery that he had oiled and kept going, happily lapping at the crumbs that were thrown at him while ignoring the other Black and persons of colour that worked in the same industry. There might have been some truth in these criticisms, but after reading this memoir I can't help but disagree on some level. Well not disagree exactly, but empathize with its author on a level. I think it's unreasonable to reduce a life and career to the moments of snobbery, cowardice and selfishness that occured and represent it as the whole. Very few wouldn't be seduced with the material and status benefits such a situation provides.
Which made me uneasy to review this, since implicit in whatever criticism is that it is made from a higher moral ground than the subject being critiqued. And whatever words I come with, long review as this has already turned out to be, will reduce this memoir, which in itself condensed a life. So, a square root of a square root of sorts.
In the end this was a fascinating memoir of a fascinating life. André was gifted, brilliant, charming, and vain; gracious and forgiving to those who were in his circles or, he felt, above him; severe and unforgiving to those that, he felt, weren't. The writing is direct and matter-of-fact when narrating biographical information, and leaps and pulsates when André talks about fashion. His descriptions of a Galliano collection, décor in an apartment, his grandmother's church clothes, and whatever else he found beautiful and caught his eye were magnificent to read.
February 8, 2022
There is so much to be said about the icon André Leon Talley, but it's so much better to read what he has to say about himself. It's illuminating, visceral, exciting, and an entire world of Black history.
Breaking down barriers is no easy task and there is so much that one loses to do so. ALT does not mince words on how hard his trajectory was, and how many opportunities folks gave him, only to suck him dry and stab him in the back on some alabaster nonsense.
One of the most important things to take away from Mr. ALT's life and work as the F.O.D. (first. only. different) is that: Black fashion and style shapes popular culture. No question about it.
It's intriguing how close-kept ALT was to Ms. Anna Wintour only to be used and used and used and never fairly compensated. That's another Black experience too many folks have. He goes alllllll the way into it. As he should!
The Chiffon Trenches was a recollection. It was pensive. The photos were incredible! I love how he championed his long-time friend, Naomi Campbell. However, there was something missing. I can't place my finger on what it was.
He was very transparent about how he felt being placed in dehumanizing situations with/by his peers. There's a deep part of me that was saddened by the fact that he never had the experience of close companionship in his 73 years of life. Hard-working folks know that it can be very lonely at the top. Who gets to have it all? Especially when dealing with the pressures of being the FOD. That's a lesson to be learned here: do your best, but put your own happiness first.
I have more thoughts around this book that you can read here and here. Also, a great podcast episode that was shared with me while I was reading this book, Remembering Andre Leon Talley can be enjoyed here. RIP to the caped-out legend.
Breaking down barriers is no easy task and there is so much that one loses to do so. ALT does not mince words on how hard his trajectory was, and how many opportunities folks gave him, only to suck him dry and stab him in the back on some alabaster nonsense.
One of the most important things to take away from Mr. ALT's life and work as the F.O.D. (first. only. different) is that: Black fashion and style shapes popular culture. No question about it.
It's intriguing how close-kept ALT was to Ms. Anna Wintour only to be used and used and used and never fairly compensated. That's another Black experience too many folks have. He goes alllllll the way into it. As he should!
The Chiffon Trenches was a recollection. It was pensive. The photos were incredible! I love how he championed his long-time friend, Naomi Campbell. However, there was something missing. I can't place my finger on what it was.
He was very transparent about how he felt being placed in dehumanizing situations with/by his peers. There's a deep part of me that was saddened by the fact that he never had the experience of close companionship in his 73 years of life. Hard-working folks know that it can be very lonely at the top. Who gets to have it all? Especially when dealing with the pressures of being the FOD. That's a lesson to be learned here: do your best, but put your own happiness first.
I have more thoughts around this book that you can read here and here. Also, a great podcast episode that was shared with me while I was reading this book, Remembering Andre Leon Talley can be enjoyed here. RIP to the caped-out legend.
February 6, 2022
ALT was a force to be reckoned with, an irrepressible personality and a font of fashion history. I wish I had gotten around to reading this while he was still with us. It makes me all the more glad this memoir exists.
The first half was a dishy delight, going into the who’s who of the fashion world and displaying the fullness of his wit and knowledge of the industry. The second half was more somber and searching as he experienced loss and delved into the rifts with Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. With each story, he was seeking acknowledgment and affirmation that his contributions mattered. That he mattered. But I fear he put his lot in with the wrong people. He had a strong sense of duty that could lead to misplaced loyalty. While he wasn’t perfect, my heart ached over the way he was treated by some of the most important figures in his life, including his estranged mother. (I will hold an eternal grudge against DVF for encouraging him to reconcile with his abusive mother. Some relationships should stay estranged, regardless of familial blood.) And that’s not even getting into the racism and microaggressions he experienced as a Black gay man within the still largely white halls of the fashion industry. He made a difference where he could, perhaps not as much as some would hope but he still made an impact.
There is a lot of name dropping and I ate it up. He moved through a lavish world that I can only imagine and I enjoyed living vicariously through him. I especially enjoyed learning the behind the scenes on various collections and the progression of his career. It’s notable who he mentions and who he does not. For instance, there was nothing about his time on America’s Next Top Model. There were also double standards. He referenced what blew up Galliano’s career (without quoting him, thankfully) but none of Lagerfeld’s problematic statements over the years, nor Chanel’s efforts to distance themselves from Coco being a Nazi sympathizer during WWII. There were also some stories where I wanted more detail, where I felt he was pulling his punches, especially if the person in question was still alive.
André never had a romantic relationship. This was in part due to unprocessed childhood trauma. I’ve seen other people express sadness over the lack and there is sadness in someone never finding the companionship or love they longed for. He gave his all to his career but the fashion industry never fully loved him in return. At the same time, people do not require a romantic relationship in order for their life to have value. In this regard, The Chiffon Trenches is a portrait of a single man who had an amazing, glamorous life. He closed with these two sentences: “It gives me unbridled joy to give love. I always wanted love.” I hope that he also had friends apart from the industry who loved him for him and not who he had access too.
At least a cursory understanding of the fashion industry will serve readers well. I’m not a Vogue devotee but I do regularly buy at least the September issues from notable magazines most years and that served me well. I would have loved a companion coffee table book with all of the clothes ALT mentioned but there were enough photographs to keep me satisfied and I looked up anything else I was curious about or couldn’t quite remember.
A couple last fun things: I loved how many of Bill Cunningham’s photos were included. I had completely forgotten they worked together at WWD! I’d also forgotten that ALT was behind the Oscar de la Renta exhibit, which I had the pleasure of seeing at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It was fascinating to learn more about how that exhibit came to be.
CW: past child sexual abuse , disordered eating (binge eating/overeating), intervention for weight gain (it’s not clear whether they believed he had disordered eating or if this was motivated by fatphobia), fatshaming by colleagues and friends, industry fatphobia, internalized fatshaming, dieting and weight loss (including failed gastric Lap-Band surgery), wheelchair use due to mobility issues, diet culture, estranged from verbally abusive mother (reconciled before her death), car accident (survived with minor injuries), death of loved ones, racism, microaggressions, racial slur, homophobic slur, ageism, AIDS epidemic, fashion show with theme of “American Indians and cowboys”, raised by grandmother, parents divorced at 9, cissexist language, ableist language, alcohol, mention of drugs, mention of others’ substance abuse, recounting of ableist bullying by boss
The first half was a dishy delight, going into the who’s who of the fashion world and displaying the fullness of his wit and knowledge of the industry. The second half was more somber and searching as he experienced loss and delved into the rifts with Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. With each story, he was seeking acknowledgment and affirmation that his contributions mattered. That he mattered. But I fear he put his lot in with the wrong people. He had a strong sense of duty that could lead to misplaced loyalty. While he wasn’t perfect, my heart ached over the way he was treated by some of the most important figures in his life, including his estranged mother. (I will hold an eternal grudge against DVF for encouraging him to reconcile with his abusive mother. Some relationships should stay estranged, regardless of familial blood.) And that’s not even getting into the racism and microaggressions he experienced as a Black gay man within the still largely white halls of the fashion industry. He made a difference where he could, perhaps not as much as some would hope but he still made an impact.
There is a lot of name dropping and I ate it up. He moved through a lavish world that I can only imagine and I enjoyed living vicariously through him. I especially enjoyed learning the behind the scenes on various collections and the progression of his career. It’s notable who he mentions and who he does not. For instance, there was nothing about his time on America’s Next Top Model. There were also double standards. He referenced what blew up Galliano’s career (without quoting him, thankfully) but none of Lagerfeld’s problematic statements over the years, nor Chanel’s efforts to distance themselves from Coco being a Nazi sympathizer during WWII. There were also some stories where I wanted more detail, where I felt he was pulling his punches, especially if the person in question was still alive.
André never had a romantic relationship. This was in part due to unprocessed childhood trauma. I’ve seen other people express sadness over the lack and there is sadness in someone never finding the companionship or love they longed for. He gave his all to his career but the fashion industry never fully loved him in return. At the same time, people do not require a romantic relationship in order for their life to have value. In this regard, The Chiffon Trenches is a portrait of a single man who had an amazing, glamorous life. He closed with these two sentences: “It gives me unbridled joy to give love. I always wanted love.” I hope that he also had friends apart from the industry who loved him for him and not who he had access too.
At least a cursory understanding of the fashion industry will serve readers well. I’m not a Vogue devotee but I do regularly buy at least the September issues from notable magazines most years and that served me well. I would have loved a companion coffee table book with all of the clothes ALT mentioned but there were enough photographs to keep me satisfied and I looked up anything else I was curious about or couldn’t quite remember.
A couple last fun things: I loved how many of Bill Cunningham’s photos were included. I had completely forgotten they worked together at WWD! I’d also forgotten that ALT was behind the Oscar de la Renta exhibit, which I had the pleasure of seeing at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It was fascinating to learn more about how that exhibit came to be.
CW: past child sexual abuse , disordered eating (binge eating/overeating), intervention for weight gain (it’s not clear whether they believed he had disordered eating or if this was motivated by fatphobia), fatshaming by colleagues and friends, industry fatphobia, internalized fatshaming, dieting and weight loss (including failed gastric Lap-Band surgery), wheelchair use due to mobility issues, diet culture, estranged from verbally abusive mother (reconciled before her death), car accident (survived with minor injuries), death of loved ones, racism, microaggressions, racial slur, homophobic slur, ageism, AIDS epidemic, fashion show with theme of “American Indians and cowboys”, raised by grandmother, parents divorced at 9, cissexist language, ableist language, alcohol, mention of drugs, mention of others’ substance abuse, recounting of ableist bullying by boss
June 29, 2020
First thought: is this guy for real? Are any of the people he writes about? Does there really exist a world where a designer's dog has its own maid? Where people give gifts worth thousands of dollars just to flaunt their own good taste? Fly people on the Concorde and put them up at the Ritz for weeks at a time?
Well, if Andre Leon Talley is to be believed, yes. It's the world of high fashion and he is its high priest.
He's also a relentless namedropper. He keeps a lifelist of every insult, snub and belittling remark ever made to him by his so called Friends in Fashion. And he alternates between being a proud black man at the top of his profession and denying that anyone around him even saw his blackness.
He says he conjured this world as a little boy - a world filled with white orchids, luxury fabrics, impeccable manners and luxury beyond imagining - to counteract his sexual abuse at the hands of a neighbor. That abuse, he says, made him unable to love or even have sex properly with anyone, man or woman, though he definitely identifies as gay.
I think I buy it - the idea of retreating into a world of your own making, one so deleriously beautiful, you'd think nothing could penetrate it and you'd always be safe inside it. Yet Andre's bubble world seems to be constantly despoiled, mostly by the awful human beings he surrounds himself with. Yes, they're talented and they create beauty all around them. But listening to him talk about them, they seem terribly ugly, deep in their souls.
And Andre himself? I'm not sure. I bet he can be cruel, if he sets his mind to it. Maybe as cruel as his mentor Anna Wintour. But somehow, I kept seeing that wide-eyed little boy peeking out, wanting the world to be as nice to him as he wants to be to them.
Andre's psychology aside, this is a fascinating look inside a world most of us would never dream could even exist. He makes the world of rich people and high fashion sound incredibly exciting and yet utterly vapid at the same time. Especially jarring to read this during the pandemic, when fashion has become a pair of sweatpants and just enough makeup to make it through your next Zoom call. Wonder what all these incredibly pretentious people are doing these days?
Well, if Andre Leon Talley is to be believed, yes. It's the world of high fashion and he is its high priest.
He's also a relentless namedropper. He keeps a lifelist of every insult, snub and belittling remark ever made to him by his so called Friends in Fashion. And he alternates between being a proud black man at the top of his profession and denying that anyone around him even saw his blackness.
He says he conjured this world as a little boy - a world filled with white orchids, luxury fabrics, impeccable manners and luxury beyond imagining - to counteract his sexual abuse at the hands of a neighbor. That abuse, he says, made him unable to love or even have sex properly with anyone, man or woman, though he definitely identifies as gay.
I think I buy it - the idea of retreating into a world of your own making, one so deleriously beautiful, you'd think nothing could penetrate it and you'd always be safe inside it. Yet Andre's bubble world seems to be constantly despoiled, mostly by the awful human beings he surrounds himself with. Yes, they're talented and they create beauty all around them. But listening to him talk about them, they seem terribly ugly, deep in their souls.
And Andre himself? I'm not sure. I bet he can be cruel, if he sets his mind to it. Maybe as cruel as his mentor Anna Wintour. But somehow, I kept seeing that wide-eyed little boy peeking out, wanting the world to be as nice to him as he wants to be to them.
Andre's psychology aside, this is a fascinating look inside a world most of us would never dream could even exist. He makes the world of rich people and high fashion sound incredibly exciting and yet utterly vapid at the same time. Especially jarring to read this during the pandemic, when fashion has become a pair of sweatpants and just enough makeup to make it through your next Zoom call. Wonder what all these incredibly pretentious people are doing these days?
May 19, 2020
For a light read, there was a lot in this book. A poignant history of ALT’s early life, his triumphs, his friendships, his traumas and heck of a lot of name-dropping. But it’s hard to find obnoxious a man who so plainly and clearly wants the love he thinks he deserves.
An endearing read.
An endearing read.
April 4, 2020
I received a copy of The Chiffon Trenches by Andre' Leon Talley from the author/publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I am not required to write a positive review.
This is Andre's story of his time as a fashion trailblazer. He gives meticulous details of his time with both designers and models who set the tone for today's fashion iconic brands. He is transparent and emotional in the telling of how a kid from the south transcended race and class to hobnob with the upper echelon of high fashion. From Yves Saint Laurent to Tom Ford he gives insight into the different demons that these artistic talents ran from.
Andre is a sensitive soul who wanted to create a world that he would feel safe in. Fashion gave him that. Rubbing shoulders with others who accepted him as he was bolstered his confidence allowing him to reach the highest rank possible in that world.
My favorite part of the book was the love he had for the women who took the time to instill in him self worth and self assurance. Not allowing his childhood trauma to hinder him or reject loving relationships is exemplary and admirable.
I am glad I read this book. I learned about an African American man who is still influential socially and fashionably. I am more aware of the people behind the brands and have more respect for what they had to go through to get to where they are.
This is Andre's story of his time as a fashion trailblazer. He gives meticulous details of his time with both designers and models who set the tone for today's fashion iconic brands. He is transparent and emotional in the telling of how a kid from the south transcended race and class to hobnob with the upper echelon of high fashion. From Yves Saint Laurent to Tom Ford he gives insight into the different demons that these artistic talents ran from.
Andre is a sensitive soul who wanted to create a world that he would feel safe in. Fashion gave him that. Rubbing shoulders with others who accepted him as he was bolstered his confidence allowing him to reach the highest rank possible in that world.
My favorite part of the book was the love he had for the women who took the time to instill in him self worth and self assurance. Not allowing his childhood trauma to hinder him or reject loving relationships is exemplary and admirable.
I am glad I read this book. I learned about an African American man who is still influential socially and fashionably. I am more aware of the people behind the brands and have more respect for what they had to go through to get to where they are.
Read
October 11, 2021***DNF***
Time of Death: About 50%
I've been stuck at 4hrs 48min in this 9+ hour audiobook for about 3 months now. I have absolutely no motivation to pick it back up so I'm calling it quits.
The audiobook is narrated by the author, and there's about as much emotion here as reading an IKEA furniture assembly manual.
He talks about family, life, career, fashion, death, sexual assault, relationships, frienships with the same monotone delivery. But no matter the topic, everything feels shallow and disingenuous.
**Listened to Audiobook**
March 13, 2023
“I was at the apex of my good-looking young self. And although I had just barely escaped the segregated Jim Crow South, I had style and attitude. I could shine with the best of them in sartorial splendor and élan.”
A sweeping story of power, confidence, and how friendships become foundational in the world of fashion, even if they turn out heartbreaking.
A sweeping story of power, confidence, and how friendships become foundational in the world of fashion, even if they turn out heartbreaking.
December 2, 2020
I really really really wanted to like this book. Anyone that knows anything about fashion knows about the (prior) right hand of Anna Wintour. I wanted to learn more about how he became one of (or the first?) most important black men in fashion. However, the book is mainly boasting and gossiping about the fortunes of the rich and influential, the designers and their muses. The book is riddled with unnecessary details such as price tags of gifts, clothes and informing us Naomi Campbell keeps a phone for every country she frequents. I don't really care for this and it doesn't add much to the purpose of his book except pushes the reader away. Halfway through the book, I was so tired of hearing (I heard the audiobook read by the author) about how Karl Lagerfeld treats others like shit, but its ok because he loves to lavish those in his clique with gifts. I wanted to hear more about his unique view as a black man in the trenches very few POC have been able to join and it fell short of this. Perhaps that was not the goal of this book, but I was hoping he would embrace his otherness, more and make him more relatable to the reader instead of boasting about how much Karl Lagerfeld and other designers loved him. He did start his book claiming how far we have come in fashion with the September cover of Beyonce she directed, this was a poor set up because the rest of the book skims over issues of race and overcoming those prejudices in the fashion world.
June 11, 2020
I didn’t plan to read this book. Prior to ordering it, I was only slightly aware of Andre Leon Talley. Recently, I was working out while listening to a podcast and the host mentioned this title. She spoke of the criticism that the book received and mentioned that reviewers found Talley to lack self awareness. The host was thoroughly impressed with Talley and eager to read the book and form her own opinion, so I decided that I would read The Chiffon Trenches as well.
As evidenced by the 5 stars, I enjoyed it. I read this book in 2-3 days. I went into it biased, but as I kept reading I realized that Talley is aware of who he is and what he meant and still means to the fashion industry. He’s very much aware of what other people thought of him and he does not seem to care. Talley is confident in his knowledge and ability. He is aware of the lack of diversity in the fashion industry and is not afraid to speak about it.
He’s enjoyed long friendships with his peers. This man was not a pet or token black friend for white designers. According to him, these people were his friends and he loved and cared deeply for them. I opened this book expecting to feel dismay for a man that failed to authentically see himself and his place in the world. Shame on me. I closed this book inspired by Talley’s knowledge, elegance, social grace, faith and desire to love and be of service to others. Don’t believe everything you hear. Read this book. It’s worth it.
As evidenced by the 5 stars, I enjoyed it. I read this book in 2-3 days. I went into it biased, but as I kept reading I realized that Talley is aware of who he is and what he meant and still means to the fashion industry. He’s very much aware of what other people thought of him and he does not seem to care. Talley is confident in his knowledge and ability. He is aware of the lack of diversity in the fashion industry and is not afraid to speak about it.
He’s enjoyed long friendships with his peers. This man was not a pet or token black friend for white designers. According to him, these people were his friends and he loved and cared deeply for them. I opened this book expecting to feel dismay for a man that failed to authentically see himself and his place in the world. Shame on me. I closed this book inspired by Talley’s knowledge, elegance, social grace, faith and desire to love and be of service to others. Don’t believe everything you hear. Read this book. It’s worth it.
June 2, 2020
This was a light yet highly enjoyable read. I know how knowledgeable and revered ALT is amongst his peers, but didn't know any of the background of how this came to be or how truly admired he is amid notable fashion icons most of which are lifelong friends. Reading about his forty year friendship with Lagerfeld was truly fascinating as I didn't know about it previously.
If you are intrigued by or engrossed with the fashion industry, there are some fantastic stories within these pages. A dazzling insider view of some of the most synonymous names in fashion. As well as great commentary on the current world of fashion (which I hadn't considered before) and the 'use and abuse' culture of fashion print media.
If you are intrigued by or engrossed with the fashion industry, there are some fantastic stories within these pages. A dazzling insider view of some of the most synonymous names in fashion. As well as great commentary on the current world of fashion (which I hadn't considered before) and the 'use and abuse' culture of fashion print media.
March 28, 2022
My main takeaway from this book is that despite his larger-than-life appearance, Talley is an empty shell of a man, the perfect embodiment of shallowness the fashion world that he describes. He would sell his soul (after reading this book I am not even sure he owns one, but, hey, I can sure tell you how many LV-cases he has) to be able to stay in the Ritz-suite one more time or to sit in the front row next to Wintour. At one point he writes: "I didn't understand the plot development, but that didn't matter: I was sitting in the most important viewing car(...) That sums up his whole book - and also makes it incredibly boring. There are much better fashion memoirs out there, don't bother with this one, you won't learn anything new from it.
September 1, 2020
Benché conscio che la fortuna suol venire in soccorso agli audaci, letto quest’ottimo libro mi sono sentito più sicuro limitando il mio ardimento al commentare l’opera d’un mostro sacro della moda contemporanea come Andre Leon Talley, senza permettermi anche la sfrontatezza di commentarlo in inglese; sarebbe stata un’eccessiva fiducia nella mia buona ventura: la quale, invece di aiutarmi, m’avrebbe potuto fare uno sberleffo. D’altra parte, il non lavorare nel mondo della moda mi esime dall’esprimermi da esperto: e per giunta, non avendo la cultura enciclopedica dell’autore, vero archivio vivente di collezioni e mises delle donne più eleganti della seconda metà del Novecento, non ho nemmeno i mezzi per discutere le sue valutazioni. E allora, oh bella, mi obietteranno i miei tre pazienti lettori, perché scriverne? Ma perché l’autobiografia di Talley mi è piaciuta moltissimo, e mi ha reso Talley molto simpatico; sicché perlomeno mi piacerebbe guadagnargli qualche lettore anche qui da noi, ove pure, se non erro, il libro non è stato ancora tradotto. Al vecchio Veronelli piaceva fare, quando s’imbatteva in un ristorante che lo incantava, una battuta col ricordare l’ordinanza apposta per ordine di Luigi XV fuori dal cimitero di San Medardo, luogo di supposti eventi taumaturgici frequentato dai giansenisti: “De par le Roy, défense à Dieu de faire miracles en ce lieu”: Tizio invece – seguitava Veronelli – i miracoli li fa; e Talley – dico io – forse non ne fa, ma la sua vita è certamente un miracolo, come riconosce più volte nel resoconto della propria vita egli stesso: partito dalla Carolina del Nord ancor aduggiata dalla segregazione razziale, giunto nell’ambiente della moda quasi per caso mentre pensava di dover diventare un francesista, entrato per puro azzardo in contatto con Diana Vreeland, diventato amico di Karl Lagerfeld in modo altrettanto accidentale, nel giro di qualche anno egli divenne, unico afroamericano a quei tempi, un collaboratore di punta di Vogue, e per più lustri collaboratore particolarmente stretto di Anna Wintour: e anche un uomo di stile: ah quelle pagliette, ah quelle tuniche regali!... Di quest’ascesa sociale e dell’aver potuto vivere in mezzo all’eleganza e alla bellezza Talley, ritiratosi ormai a riposo e varcata la settantina, è grato e felice, come rammenta più volte: gratitudine che assume anche caldi accenti religiosi, perché il Nostro è sempre rimasto fedele al cristianesimo battista della sua infanzia, e non manca di ricordare come proprio la fede gli abbia dato equilibrio, costanza e prudenza nell’attraversare quelle che chiama le chiffon trenches della moda. Se gli vogliamo dar retta, è un ballo – come avrebbe detto il cardinal di Retz – per ballare il quale non bisogna temere qualche colpo di pugnale o qualche coppa di veleno: e veleni e pugnalate metaforici (ma si tratta di metafore che fanno molto male) nella vita egli ne ha subiti a ripetizione, anche da parte di chi credeva molto amico, anche se a infliggergli la coltellata forse più machiavellica e chirurgica fu Pierre Bergé, che suo amico propriamente non era. Si avverte anche, tangibile, il rimpianto per aver sacrificato in parte gli affetti familiari ad un lavoro amato ma spietato nell’esclusività del suo abbraccio: l’adorata nonna che lo aveva cresciuto con semplicità e amore nella sua cittadina del Sud, la madre con cui, viceversa, il rapporto era sempre stato teso e difficile; e, con ritegno e garbo, Talley rievoca anche il trauma d’un abuso sessuale subito nell’adolescenza, che gli ha sempre impedito di vivere con pienezza la sua omosessualità e l’amore. Forse però l’amarezza più forte, quella che screzia soprattutto gli ultimi capitoli d’una sottile ma indubitabile malinconia è la rapida obsolescenza che nell’attuale moda, sempre più dominata da un criterio affaristico, travolge non solo i vestiti, ma perfino le persone che avevano ad essa consacrato una vita intera, messe da parte, dimenticate, magari sostituite da effimeri divi della rete: il capitolo sulle nozze di Marc Jacobs, scritto con una prosa pacata e quasi distratta, è tutto attraversato da lame di vento gelido, e fra lo scintillio del lusso più corrusco si allungano le ombre del disinganno e della solitudine. Alla fine, le due figure più ricorrenti in queste memorie, Karl Lagerfeld e Anna Wintour – frequentati peraltro in modo del tutto differente: Lagerfeld era stato amico e mentore per un Talley ancora giovane e inesperto – brillano remoti a tratti come icone di perfezione, a tratti come fantasmi che mettono a disagio. E in effetti l’autore, grande cultore della seta, è serico anche nella reminiscenza: lucida e luminosa, ma cangiante, sfuggente, ingannevole; di tante persone care rievoca la gentilezza, i favori, per poi svelarne un istante, con un fruscio e un colpo d’ala, certe miserie che fanno rimanere a bocca aperta: non è che le voglia sminuire, ma, nella calma olimpica dell’uomo che ha visto e sperimentato tante cose della vita, le ritrae così, belle e meschine come assieme belli e meschini, ma senza fama, passiamo in tanti sulla scena del mondo. Dopotutto, invecchiare senza rancori ma con una visione acuta del passato è un dono magnifico, e Talley mostra di esserne contento. La cosa però di cui gioisce di più è l’aver vissuto per la moda e in mezzo alla moda. Il suo senso dell’outfit degno di memoria, dell’armonia di tonalità, di materiali e di forme, della grammatica e della sintassi dell’abbigliamento sono palpabili e affascinanti: di fronte a una mise memorabile sembrano eclissarsi le ingiustizie, sembrano tramontare le amarezze: resta solo la bellezza, catturata da uno sguardo e affettuosamente mantenuta viva in un ricordo. E una vita dedicata all’eleganza e alla bellezza è senza dubbio una vita bene spesa.
May 18, 2020
I LOVED this book. I was worried it would be the same stuff that was in the documentary, but it’s so much more. The book does a good job of giving you all the details behind the stuff that was in the documentary. There is so much more to all of his stories. This book is for everyone who loves fashion, 90s fashion, Vogue, and of course, Anna Wintour.
CW: disordered eating ** He does talk about his weight, weight loss, gastric bypass surgery, and “food addiction”. Those are triggering topics for a lot of us. So just know that’s in there. The bulk of this is in Chapter 12, just FYI.
CW: disordered eating ** He does talk about his weight, weight loss, gastric bypass surgery, and “food addiction”. Those are triggering topics for a lot of us. So just know that’s in there. The bulk of this is in Chapter 12, just FYI.
September 3, 2020
Well I just loved this book, but I am definitely a target audience. I’m familiar with Andre Leon Talley, Vogue and the designers and other models/fashion figures he talks about, and I loved all his descriptions of clothes, so all of that certainly made it more interesting to me.
Also he reads the audio himself which is not to be missed - absolutely delightful! Sure he comes off as a bit of a myopic narcissist a lot of the time, but I just found it amusing, prob bc I don’t have to live with him in real life, just got to listen to all of his insider dishy commentary.
Also he reads the audio himself which is not to be missed - absolutely delightful! Sure he comes off as a bit of a myopic narcissist a lot of the time, but I just found it amusing, prob bc I don’t have to live with him in real life, just got to listen to all of his insider dishy commentary.
February 26, 2023
This was an very interesting recollection of a very interesting life embedded in fashion. I've never read a biography before so Im struggling to judge this book. My biggest criticism is that I felt like the narrative jumped often very quickly with no thread to follow in the second half which made it more difficult to read.
January 22, 2022
This was pleasurable book to read, almost a guilty pleasure. How does a 6'8" black man navigate the high-fashion industry and for so many years?
One is with a higher education and having the correct major --- French. Another seems to be coming in contact with the correct people or person --- in this case, the legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Third is the the ability to write and dress with a sense of élan. Lastly, is having the fear of God and an upbringing that gives you some religious instruction about behavior, but not giving you the reasons why.
André Leon Talley started his career as volunteer for Diana Vreeland, who convinced him that he did not want to be an instructor of French in a private school. She asked him to hang in there as she attempts to recommend him in an industry that had few blacks in any capacity. Luckily for him, John Fairchild, the owner for WWD and W was looking for writer to cover the fashion industry in Paris.
This hire allowed Talley access to all of the movers and shakers in the couture industry. He reported daily to his higher ups in the New York City, but the employment did not end well. He persevered after returning to NYC and made friends with Anna Wintour, as she came up through the fashion editing ranks.
I don't want go into full details on his book, as a lot of information about the designers and editors have been publicly documented. The big takeaway from this book is the backbiting and backstabbing within the couture fashion industry. Loyalty is not always rewarded; risky behavior is not rewarded; friendships should not be be taken for granted.
Mr. Talley can drop names with the best of the them as he was invited to be in their company or orbit, if you will. It is an industry where it pays to have powerful ego and full sense of self, which at times Mr. Talley displayed and other times, I am not so sure.
The book was very entertaining and well written and I think gave an excellent view of the fashion industry and its principal players
One is with a higher education and having the correct major --- French. Another seems to be coming in contact with the correct people or person --- in this case, the legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Third is the the ability to write and dress with a sense of élan. Lastly, is having the fear of God and an upbringing that gives you some religious instruction about behavior, but not giving you the reasons why.
André Leon Talley started his career as volunteer for Diana Vreeland, who convinced him that he did not want to be an instructor of French in a private school. She asked him to hang in there as she attempts to recommend him in an industry that had few blacks in any capacity. Luckily for him, John Fairchild, the owner for WWD and W was looking for writer to cover the fashion industry in Paris.
This hire allowed Talley access to all of the movers and shakers in the couture industry. He reported daily to his higher ups in the New York City, but the employment did not end well. He persevered after returning to NYC and made friends with Anna Wintour, as she came up through the fashion editing ranks.
I don't want go into full details on his book, as a lot of information about the designers and editors have been publicly documented. The big takeaway from this book is the backbiting and backstabbing within the couture fashion industry. Loyalty is not always rewarded; risky behavior is not rewarded; friendships should not be be taken for granted.
Mr. Talley can drop names with the best of the them as he was invited to be in their company or orbit, if you will. It is an industry where it pays to have powerful ego and full sense of self, which at times Mr. Talley displayed and other times, I am not so sure.
The book was very entertaining and well written and I think gave an excellent view of the fashion industry and its principal players
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