It is with great sadness we announce the passing of André Leon Talley on January 18, 2022 in New York. Mr. Talley was the larger-than-life, longtime creative director at Vogue during its rise to dominance as the world’s fashion bible. Over the past five decades as an international icon was a close confidant of Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Paloma Picasso, Diane von Furstenberg, Bethann Hardison, Manolo Blahnik and he had a penchant for discovering, nurturing and celebrating young designers. His byline appeared in Vanity Fair, HG, Interview, Ebony and Women’s Wear Daily and he was the editor of Numero Russia. Mr. Talley wrote several books, including Valentino, A.L.T.: A Memoir, A.L.T. 365 and Little Black Dress for Assouline, and contributed to Valentino: At the Emperor’s Table and Cartier Panthère. He was the subject of the documentary The Gospel According to André and his recent memoir, The Chiffon Trenches became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2014, he was named artistic director of Zappos Couture, and he has been on the Board of Trustees of Savannah College of Art and Design since 2000. Mr. Talley was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Republic in 2020 and the North Carolina Governor’s award for literature in 2021. He was a long-standing member of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. 🕊 #thechiffontrenches 📸// #jonathanbecker Photograph by Jonathan Becker
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
Love 🕊
God of Love, you give us love and we must live in the moment of love. @tiffanyandco in its long, long history has stood for the highest standards of high style, in jewels and crystal, china, everything. Audrey Hepburn in her Little Black Dress and styrofoam coffee cup,put the flagship store on the map with the opening scene of the film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And now its is time to recognize Queen Bey and King Jay-Z. They represent the iconic pose of high style: she wearing a rare yellow diamond of such brilliance,as both, lean, elegant and featured against a Basquiat. What is celebrated here is finally, a powerful brand, aligned with the power of a black brand of power, comes together in partnering and supporting HBCUS, in America, with scholarships. Bey and Jay put the money where it matters. By the way, you can’t get any better than this image of two self-made talented individuals who represent love. God is Love. Tiffany is about Love. Live in Love. #tiffanyandco #beyonce #jayz #thechiffontrenches
First Monday in May
First Monday in May
First Monday in May
ALL-IN: I was right there, having coined the word the Ultra-ettes in Interview social column after I arrived in New York, in 1974, the year Halston begins his meteoric rise and becomes the Sun King of American fashion, by the time, he sells his Paul Rudolph townhouse and Montauk, and moves to the West Coast, Icarus’s gilded wings has been scorched by bad behavior, bad choices, and an ego that matched the heights of mountains in the Himalayas. Halston gave me his buff and sand toned ultrasuede jackets, (about 6) which I wore as uniforms. Literally, you could throw them in washing machine and dryer and have a jacket that was impeccable. He also gave me my first aviator sunglasses in tortoise, and his bespoke white smoking dinner jackets. We were close, but not close enough, nor did he ever hit on me, or I him. A tete a tete dinner for two,would be served on a low coffee table with those long gray sofas, in the living room. Menu: chilled Russian vodka, the best caviar, on ice, a baked potato for each of us, all served on elegant glassware and crystal. Oh, of course, neat pyramids of cocaine was there as well as Peretti original candlesticks shaped from bones. The atmosphere was seductive. I feared loosing my job therefore, pushing the pyramids of fresh coke, and opting for caviar, endless runs to the kitchen oven to get another baked potato and lemon . We managed to have conversations. Halston had the self-imposed style of a Cary Grant and the dramatics of Vincent Prince, all combined into one. There are no long, long tapered fingers like the Halston’s . His generosity stretched even to gifting me with his favorite Chinese chest, from his first apartment that was left in his garage. I should have kept that, piece of furniture, but I passed it on to a friend, upon moving to Paris in 1978. I survived the chiffon trenches. My story in my own words. THE CHIFFON TRENCHES is out in paperback everywhere books are sold. #thechiffontrenches #halston #halstonnetflix #fashion #andywarhol #studio54 #biancajagger
ALL-IN: I was right there, having coined the word the Ultra-ettes in Interview social column after I arrived in New York, in 1974, the year Halston begins his meteoric rise and becomes the Sun King of American fashion, by the time, he sells his Paul Rudolph townhouse and Montauk, and moves to the West Coast, Icarus’s gilded wings has been scorched by bad behavior, bad choices, and an ego that matched the heights of mountains in the Himalayas. Halston gave me his buff and sand toned ultrasuede jackets, (about 6) which I wore as uniforms. Literally, you could throw them in washing machine and dryer and have a jacket that was impeccable. He also gave me my first aviator sunglasses in tortoise, and his bespoke white smoking dinner jackets. We were close, but not close enough, nor did he ever hit on me, or I him. A tete a tete dinner for two,would be served on a low coffee table with those long gray sofas, in the living room. Menu: chilled Russian vodka, the best caviar, on ice, a baked potato for each of us, all served on elegant glassware and crystal. Oh, of course, neat pyramids of cocaine was there as well as Peretti original candlesticks shaped from bones. The atmosphere was seductive. I feared loosing my job therefore, pushing the pyramids of fresh coke, and opting for caviar, endless runs to the kitchen oven to get another baked potato and lemon . We managed to have conversations. Halston had the self-imposed style of a Cary Grant and the dramatics of Vincent Prince, all combined into one. There are no long, long tapered fingers like the Halston’s . His generosity stretched even to gifting me with his favorite Chinese chest, from his first apartment that was left in his garage. I should have kept that, piece of furniture, but I passed it on to a friend, upon moving to Paris in 1978. I survived the chiffon trenches. My story in my own words. THE CHIFFON TRENCHES is out in paperback everywhere books are sold. #thechiffontrenches #halston #halstonnetflix #fashion #andywarhol #studio54 #biancajagger
Patrick Hourcade, the former creative director of French Vogue and an expert in 18th-century art, is a man of integrity, decency, wicked humor, and refinement. He was also a most unlikely best friend to Karl Lagerfeld. They met in 1976, when Hourcade was at the apex of his career as a French fashion journalist. In his beautiful and elegant new book, Karl: No Regrets, he peels back the opulent pomp to expose the many layers of complex and often cruel forms of manipulation that Karl Lagerfeld survived on until he died, in February of 2019. Hourcade’s book is part epistle, part memoir, and slithers quickly and with efficient speed in minimal chapters. For 25 years, Hourcade was Lagerfeld’s close male friend, his factotum in every aspect of the self-invented fairy tale. Hourcade and Lagerfeld bonded over their obsession with 18th-century antiques, and together, using Lagerfeld’s always open checkbook, they built magnificent collections at the great designer’s homes—Grand-Champ, a château in Brittany; Hotel Pozzo di Borgo, in Paris; and La Vigie, a villa on the French Riviera. Hourcade’s book is lavishly illustrated with people and places that were integral to the fairy tale, the gilded rooms with wall-to-wall paintings and Versailles rugs, and the incredible decorated beds. This book is essential reading for those who want to know the real Lagerfeld, the one who fell out with so many people he loved, including the Sotheby’s France head Laure de Beauvau-Craon; Gilles Dufour, his right-hand man at Chanel; Inès de la Fressange; and Hourcade. Lagerfeld was generous to all of his friends—until he turned on them. For the last 20 years of his life, Lagerfeld dismissed Hourcade as “a cheat and a liar,” apparently because, in some mysterious way, he considered himself jilted. Read more of my review in @airmailweekly #karllagerfeld #noregrets #thechiffontrenches @hourcade.patrick
“Manolo Blahnik and I were kindred spirits. Manolo Blahnik, the sum total of human genius in designing shoes for women, invited me to Fire Island one weekend. He arrived with matching sets of Vuitton cases, filled with matching sets of tone-on-tone Rive Gauche shirts and custom-made linen trousers. We went to a pool party where they spiked the punch with something, causing us to have non stop fits of laughter for nearly 14 hours.” #thechiffontrenches #nytimesbestseller Now Available In Paperback and just in time for summer beach reading.
Manolo Blanhink is back home,in Manhattan, but this on Madison Ave. in a marvellous (spelled with two l’s the way Diana Vreeland spelled the word) store, which includes a full department devoted to men’s shoes. His female clients will have the pleasure of shopping in a space that is beyond the next level: unabashed luxury, (including full time bar and service), and the genius of Blahnik’s creative exuberance in everything from flats to the highest heels possible. The new store located at 717 Madison Avenue has the old world quiet elegance of a couture salon, decorated with mid-century opaque chandeliers, and beautifully hand applied vertical stripes of greige and fawn. It is the largest Blahnik shoe store in the world. The opening this week in New York was a virtual blast of Blahnik’s two favorite New York personalities: designer Issac Mizrahi, and singer and actor and comedienne Sandra Berhnard. They performed at the famous Carlyle Hotel, in a cabaret with full orchestra. It was by virtual invitation; Manolo spoke briefly from London, the hostess was his neice Christina, also in London. Here: Blahnik and I in our bespoke suits and bespoke shoes photographed by Lord Snowdon, husband of Princess Margaret, sister to Queen Elizabeth II, who was a friend of ours. Manolo is one of the great lights , spreading his energy throughout the universe, not only in shoes, but style, knowledge, taste, culture, the arts. He could have been a great interior decorator,a great actor, anything. Dog lovers , you will adore him for this, he has 15 dogs in his native Santa Cruz de la Palma, the Canary Islands where he was born. #ManoloBlahnik#Vogue.com#CFDA#The ChiffonTrenches (now available in paperback)
Anna Wintour has a sure hit with her First Lady cover featuring Dr. Jill Biden, wearing a very beautiful Oscar de la Renta dress and a smile that embraces everyone. Jill Biden is not trying to be an electric storm fashion wise . This is a moment of elegance and grace from her spirit: not look book, doll house choices, not perfect hair comb out. She is that quiet thunder. Like First Lady Michelle Obama, she expresses fashion in a personal way! I hosted a fundraiser for President Obama in Washington, D.C. My favorite moments at the Inaugural: when she stepped out of her blue court stilettos into her comfortable nude tone stilettos on lower heels for the Insugiral parade. Keep inspiring us with our wisdom, your passion, your megawatt smile. #vogue #oscardelarenta #thechiffontrenches
Throwback to true elegance: Anne H Bass, who died last spring, was one of the true original and elegant ladies of the universe. We were very close friends; my favorite moments were when we dined or had lunch, alone, just the two of us. Or with another close friend, at Majorelle, Catie Marron. Anne loved everything beautiful and stunning: gardens, paintings, clothes, films as in Bertolucci or Visconti, and of course, ballet. And more than anything, she loved her two daughters, Hyatt and Samantha. Hyatt interned for me at HG (formerly House & Garden, where I was Creative Director) for nine months, while Anna Wintour, was the glass ceiling decimator, as editor-in-chief. I loved this Ron Galella photo because it shows that we cared about how we got dressed back in the Eighties and Nineties. I miss Anne the way I miss Lee (Radziwill) and Sao (Schlumberger) and Diana (Vreeland), I think about Anne, Lee, and Sao and Mrs Vreeland a lot. A whole lot. Here, Anne and I are in New York, going to the Met Gala in 1993. Yours truly, author of Chiffon Trenches (just released in Penguin paperback)is wearing full military formal dress, from Welsh & Jefferies, Saville, Row, London, and bespoke D’Orsay shoes with gilt buckles, Manolo Blahnik. Anne is wearing Valentino couture, and an antique pearl and diamond brooch. Soignée . Sashshay #thechiffontrenches #monoloblahnik #valentino #giancarlogiammetti #vogue #metball #penguinrandomhouse
Mayowa and Phyllis Posnick, create elegant, timeless images in a portfolio on the force of body aligned with the technique of flou, soft fabrics,and volume. This portfolio shot by the brilliant visionary team of Inez and Vinoodh, for Sir Edward Enninful’s Jul/August issue speaks volumes. It says much of Old School brilliant editors like Vogue’s Phyllis Posnick, of my generation, who worked so closely with the late master Irvin Penn and the late great friend, Helmut Newton, brings to the pages of a fashion spread. There is research, there is soaring sophistication and passion of the team aligned by model and editor and photographer to create beauty and something unique. These photographs could be inspired by Martha Graham or the fragments of Delphic dancers on a Greek or Roman frieze in Athens. Such power speaks truth. It is beyond trend and creates timeless grace and beauty. Thank you Mayowa and Phyllis, one of the great iconic editors of Vogue,and Inez and Vinoodh. This is first rate and worthy of museum exhibitions and will remain in my mind’s eye one of the most beautiful and inspiring fashion portfolios ever achieved. #edwardenninful #alexandermcqueen #vogue #phyllisposnick #inezandvinoodh #thechiffontrenches #scad #malalayousafzai #fordfoundation
Mayowa and Phyllis Posnick, create elegant, timeless images in a portfolio on the force of body aligned with the technique of flou, soft fabrics,and volume. This portfolio shot by the brilliant visionary team of Inez and Vinoodh, for Sir Edward Enninful’s Jul/August issue speaks volumes. It says much of Old School brilliant editors like Vogue’s Phyllis Posnick, of my generation, who worked so closely with the late master Irvin Penn and the late great friend, Helmut Newton, brings to the pages of a fashion spread. There is research, there is soaring sophistication and passion of the team aligned by model and editor and photographer to create beauty and something unique. These photographs could be inspired by Martha Graham or the fragments of Delphic dancers on a Greek or Roman frieze in Athens. Such power speaks truth. It is beyond trend and creates timeless grace and beauty. Thank you Mayowa and Phyllis, one of the great iconic editors of Vogue,and Inez and Vinoodh. This is first rate and worthy of museum exhibitions and will remain in my mind’s eye one of the most beautiful and inspiring fashion portfolios ever achieved. #edwardenninful #alexandermcqueen #vogue #phyllisposnick #inezandvinoodh #thechiffontrenches #scad #malalayousafzai #fordfoundation
