Fashion writer André Leon Talley: Always in fashion

Ahen Karl Lagerfeld checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel with a entourage of henchmen and journalists in the 1970s, the receptionist said, “We have a problem. This man can’t live with us.” He was referring to André Leon Talley, the only black person in the group, then editor of Women’s Wear Daily. Lagerfeld, who was no stranger to diversity even then, said: “Then we’ll all go.” The threat helped: Talley was finally accommodated in one of the hotel bungalows, and the group stayed.

André Leon Talley was from another era, but with racism and homophobia it lingers on to our day. The fashion impresario, who died Tuesday in a New York hospital at the age of 73, has always battled contempt. The fact that he became one of the most important figures in the fashion scene had to do with this: he had to develop an authority, which he also wielded with thunderous words, in order to grow beyond hating a gay black man. And because the two-meter-and-three-hundred-weight man did not correspond at all to the uniform image that was cultivated for too long in the front row of the fashion shows and in the “Vogue” editorial office on 42nd Street.

His grandmother, who nurtured the boy in rural North Carolina, started his journey to the higher echelons. The request was made by Vogue boss Diana Vreeland, who discovered him. An incorruptible eye for style, good relationships with designers from Yves Saint Laurent to Marc Jacobs, no trouble finding words in the photo industry: Talley was the ideal penman, first for “Interview” and “W”, later for American “Vogue”.

Andy Warhol put “his pale white hand in his crotch”, Lagerfeld provided him with caftans, shirts and $50,000 for his 50th birthday, editor-in-chief Anna Wintour made him her second husband. Even as an editor he was a marketing man. In any case, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis reported on his presence in the Chanel couture salon: “When André was there, the women were happy and bought a lot.” That’s how “Vogue” turns you into an “editor at large”.

And to the legend. He advised the Obamas on style, served as a judge on America’s Next Top Model, wrote books, and taught. In 2013, Anna Wintour dumped him. The final insult: In 2018 she even replaced him as a reporter on the red carpet at the Met Gala with a YouTube star: “I was too old for her, too fat and too uncool.” His memories “The Chiffon Trenches” (2020) became the Invoice. In the end, he was also discriminated against because of his age and weight.