Andre Leon Talley: the fashion guru gets to the bottom of what makes the fashion maven tick

Interview, Nov, 2003 by Andre Leon Talley

ALT: Well, you do that now. You dress like a princess now. [both laugh]

MP: So what ultimately got you imagining your self in other places?

ALT: I had no imagination to go anywhere or to do anything until my teenage years, when I discovered Vogue. Vogue was the thing that opened a door to other worlds. Also when I began to take French lessons in junior high school from this extraordinary teacher named Cynthia P. Smith. She just made France and the language seem fabulous to me. Every summer in August she'd go to France on her own, travel all over, and come back to show us slides of places like Avignon. Then she would talk to us about it. For me, this was very glamorous.

MP: Did you discover Vogue by chance?

ALT: Yes, in the library at school. Vogue in those days was full of pictures of young people in England. The boutique section attracted me because it included a men's page. I loved the way the men were dressing, and I guess I tried to imitate that whole Carnaby Street look when I was a teenager. But I also loved the people in Vogue, the women, the pictures, the houses. I remember distinctly Pauline de Rothschild with her ponytail. That was a big, big influence. Vogue was my hobby, and no one in my family ever had a copy of the magazine in the house until I did. The big experience was on Sundays after church. I'd wash the dishes, walk to the white part of town through the grounds of Duke University--a great, elegant school--to the newsstand that was open on Sundays. That was my big joy. I not only bought American Vogue, bet French Vogue and The New York Times.

MP: What year was this?

ALT: 1960, 1961. Jackie and John Kennedy were in the White House. I thought Jackie Kennedy was the most extraordinary thing, maybe because of the way she talked, but also because of the way she dressed. Everyone in the South in those days, including black women, was looking to Jackie Kennedy as an image of elegance. So the little hat that only cost three dollars in the store downtown was a copy of something Jackie Kennedy was wearing. My grandmother's handbags had that same look as Jackie's, though they didn't cost the same, of course.

MP: For you, what is the difference between the beauty of rich and poor things?

ALT: It's all the same. It's all relevant to me. It all has the same intrinsic value. A beautiful Egyptian cotton sheet is as luxurious as your crocodile coat or alligator bag. I love a fabulous sable coat, but I also love a white cotton shirt. My grandmother had very simple things, but they were not kept in a precious way, just very beautifully maintained.

MP: As you started to become aware of the world, were there particular people who fascinated you?

ALT: My big, big dream was that one day I'd meet Diana Vreeland; when I did finally meet her, I knew everything about her because I'd read everything I could possibly get my hands on about her. I wanted to meet Antonio Lopez because I looked at his illustrations in The New York Times when he was an illustrator for the Times every Sunday. I wanted to meet Naomi Sims, the black model, who was in an ad on TV, in a pink Bill Blass dress.