'I was at the top of the mountain': André Leon Talley's fashionable life in pictures

For nearly 50 years, André Leon Talley moved in the circles that made fashion history – from his early career with Andy Warhol, to coining the term ‘fashion moment’ (to describe Galliano’s 1994 Japonisme show), to 30-odd years as Anna Wintour’s ‘Man  Friday’ at American  Vogue.

Now, to mark the publication of The Chiffon Trenches, his new memoir, he regales us with anecdotes from a life in fashion. ‘I really felt that when I got to the top of the mountain, I had earned it,’ he says. And boy, what a view.

1977: Backstage at a Diane von Furstenberg show

There I am, already a young  editor at Women’s Wear Daily. I’ve got very few clothes on because I don’t have my wardrobe yet. [Talley was paid $50 a week in his previous job, at Warhol’s Interview magazine.] But I’m standing there, very focused on Diane [von Furstenberg], and  she’s concentrating on having her hair done.

After this we became friends for life. I always stayed at her apartment when I came to New York once I moved to Paris. She was then living in an apartment on Fifth Avenue with something like 30 rooms. And to this day, she’s one of my closest and dearest friends. Before Covid-19, Diane was going to host me an intimate dinner at a restaurant in New York to celebrate the debut of my book.

1978: In Paris with Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent has just shown the Broadway Suit  collection in Paris and I’ve had a hit covering my first show. Mrs Vreeland [the legendary magazine editor] wrote me a letter saying how much she’d loved my story. This photo was taken at a fitting at the house of Saint Laurent. I’m wearing  an antique Indian belt as a necklace, but I can’t imagine why I have a mask pushed up on my head.

1979: Studio 54 with Diana Ross

This was New Year’s Eve at Studio 54, when someone captured me dancing with Diana Ross. At this point I was living in Paris and I’d come back to New York for Christmas. There I am, in my very beautiful black suit from Dior, dipping Diana Ross, who’s wearing a Saint Laurent dress.  I became known in this world because I worked with Andy and Mrs Vreeland and at Women’s Wear Daily. So I wasn’t just a nobody that Diana Ross was dancing with – she knew who I was.

We met at a lunch in 1978 in Paris with [model] Betty Catroux and her husband François. You can see how much fun we’re having here. Everyone’s looking at us like we’re the main event. Well, that’s Diana Ross. And I was young enough, strong enough, to dip her and dance with style. So this is just us coming together on the dance floor at 54 which, of course, was a universal place. I mean, the music, the scene – everyone just connected at 54. It was a great place.

1981: Dinner at Mortimer’s with Andy Warhol

This is Andy Warhol, Steve Rubell [a co-owner of Studio 54] and me at a dinner at the now-defunct Mortimer’s – I think it was a party given for Bianca Jagger, who was on the other side of the table. Mortimer’s was this great WASPy watering hole on Lexington Avenue. It was just the place to meet. This was a special dinner, which is why I’m wearing a YSL Rive Gauche  lamé scarf and why Andy is wearing a suit and tie. Everyone went out to dinner, then. That’s just what you did, and then you would end up at 54.

1987: A Fendi shoot with Lord Snowdon

Ah, the lynx-wearing Lord Snowdon! I worked with him so many times. I called him Tony. We were shooting a piece on the Fendi dynasty for Vanity Fair. Tony had flown to Rome from London and I had flown in  from New York. This was in the heat of the summer. I mean, it was hot.

Between shots, Tony wanted to see all the extraordinary coats and the workmanship. He looked at these two incredibly expensive lynx coats. In those days, in 1987,  a lynx was the norm for the wealthy. I mean, the person who would buy a coat like the ones Tony and I were wearing, would have many, many fur coats. But those were the most expensive coats on the Fendi rack – they must have cost $200,000 each – and Tony said, ‘Try on the coat.’ I didn’t understand why. He said, ‘Just do it. Just try it on.’ And of course, you know, Tony is the photographer, I am the editor; of course I’m going to acquiesce to what the photographer wants. I put it on, and he pulls the other one on and asks his assistant to snap the picture.

Tony was an extraordinary human being. He could be very naughty and very witty, but he had such wonderful manners. Working with him was a process. You would go to his house, have lunch, talk about what we were going to do, and then we would do it. Of course, he had been married to Princess Margaret.

I met her once, in the south of France. They were divorced. I think it was in August, and one of my friends called me one morning and said, ‘Come over, we’re going to have lunch with Princess Margaret.’ I was staying in one of Karl Lagerfeld’s apartments in Monte Carlo. I called a friend who had a Bentley and asked if he could have it come over to pick me up, because I’m having lunch with Princess Margaret. I went in my best Oscar Wilde look. And Princess Margaret was swimming along in the  private pool in the Sir Russell Page gardens. I found her to be frosty. I want to say frooooosty.  I would even say frozen, and thawing out into a light frost. She never warmed up.

1989: In Paris with Anna Wintour

We’re at Mr Saint Laurent’s house for a party, and this is the only time that Anna ever went to sit on my knee. At that point, we were the best of friends. She had hired me as creative director of Vogue. It was the top of the mountain. She’s clearly very, very beautiful and sexy. The legs look longer than life. And, as you can see, she is extremely warm. I mean, sitting on my knee! Today you can hardly shake her hand. She’s Dame Anna Wintour. Then she was just Anna.

1999: The Met Gala

I am wearing the most extraordinary custom-made, floor-length Tom Ford coat. This was the beginning of me having coats made for the Met Gala, and a floor-length felt more stately, more ceremonial. The coat is black leather embossed with gold embroidery. I haven’t looked at it in years and I hope it’s not all dried out. I couldn’t wear it now, but I really loved it, and it is Tom Ford. Anna is wearing a John Galliano for Christian Dior haute couture look from a collection that had been shown at Versailles in July.

This is when Anna and I used to go up the entrance steps together. Look how happy we are. We are very in sync, both at work and as friends. We think alike, and we speak the same language of style and fashion. You can see that we are very much a team, a partnership. This was one of the last years that going to the Met Gala was fabulous for me. Over the years it became part of my duties working for Vogue. And she  was the head of it and you just couldn’t question anything.

I didn’t go to the last one, to Camp. I decided I was never going to go again after she threw me off the red carpet. [Talley was replaced as red-carpet host by Liza Koshy, a YouTube personality, for the 2018 and 2019 events.] The last one I hosted, for Rei Kawakubo’s exhibition in 2017, Anna came to me and said, ‘You’ve done a great job.’ And then she threw me to the kerb.

2005: A party with Mariah Carey

Mariah is a dear friend of mine and a wonderful person. I don’t see her often but I adore her. We met in Aspen. The next year, she invited me to take a midnight ride in a horse-drawn carriage that had been owned by Bing Crosby. I had two Tiffany flutes of champagne in the carriage as we went through the woods and the snow, and then we had dinner at 2am. That’s Mariah.

2007: At a Carolina Herrera show

There we are, Anna and I, both in dark glasses, seriously scrutinising the looks as they come down the runway. I love this picture because we are working. You can see that Anna is focused on the belt; I am focused on the way it’s moving, the attitude and the elegance. Silently. We don’t take notes. But behind the dark glasses are the eyes of Darth Vader.

2008: At the Met Gala

Here I am with Karl Lagerfeld, Venus Williams (in a Carolina Herrera couture dress), and [designer] Kimora Lee Simmons. I’m in a Ralph Lauren dinner suit with the red cape Karl designed for Chanel. The cape was so big, I wrapped myself in it – and Venus.  That was one of my favourite Met Galas. We’re just talking and having fun. I felt always that  I was at the centre of the world that made fashion. I was at the top of the mountain, and I had earned my place there.

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