“The Chiffon Trenches,” A Memoir By Andre L Talley, is Set to Release On May 19

Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SCAD

Former creative director and contributing editor at Vogue Magazine, Andre Leon Talley, is releasing his memoir entitled The Chiffon Trenches on May 19, 2020. Talley recently interviewed with Daniel Bates at dailymail.com, discussing the details of the book along with some very detailed information regarding his friendship with Vogue’s editor in chief, Anna Wintour. Prior to this interview, Mr. Talley had mainly spoken positively about his experience at Vogue and as Anna Wintour’s dear friend. Nonetheless, several sources have noted that Talley’s time working in high fashion consisted of many brutal, unjust and cruel moments.

In order to fully understand his experience in the fashion industry, it’s important to know his background. The former editor was raised primarily by his grandmother, in North Carolina where he attended the historically black North Carolina Central University and graduated with a degree in French Literature. He then received a Master of Arts in French Literature from Brown University, which he notes as being one of the most liberating times of his life. Prior to attending Brown, Talley had already been obsessing over the glossy pages of French Vogue, read a lot of literature surrounding fashion history and was set to become an editor once realizing he could have success in fashion journalism. After graduating with his master’s degree, he moved to NYC and worked a series of jobs until he worked his way up, becoming the first black male creative director at a Conde Nast publication.

Photo: AFP/Bryan Bedder

When Wintour appointed Talley as creative director at Vogue, the two started developing a very close relationship. According to dailymail.com, Anna even expressed concerns about Andre Leon Talley’s health to the extent of scheduling an intervention for his weight. However, in the interview, the former editor notes that Anna Wintour is “not capable of simple human kindness.,” and that their “decades-long friendship ended because he was too old, overweight, and uncool.” Andre Leon Talley hasn’t been the only person speaking out on his experience at Conde Nast. Other industry sources within the industry, such as Ralph Rucci, recently made an Instagram post stating that he too had emotional scars from his interactions with the Ice Queen. All of the recent news surrounding Mrs. Wintour and her relational dynamics with those she was once very close with raises questions about if The Devil Wears Prada, a film whose main character is intended to emulate the role of Anna Wintour, is an accurate reflection of high fashion work culture. In Talley’s interview with dailymail.com, he states that although there was no distasteful tossing of coats to assistants, many of the staff were met with great trepidation while working with Wintour.

But Talley’s relationship with her is only a portion of what will be highlighted in The Chiffon Trenches. The memoir will also discuss how he’s essentially been blacklisted from the who’s who of high fashion because he made the decision to leave Vogue due after hitting a “glass ceiling.” Talley saw that there was no room for him to grow and has gone on to pursue other curatorial and journalistic endeavors. He currently lives in Westchester Country, where he lives what he describes as a fairly lonely life. One of the benefits of Andre Leon Talley speaking openly about his relationship with Wintour and the industry at large is that people who otherwise wouldn’t be involved in the conversation, are now involved. It’s further democratizing the industry and I’m curious to see how it responds.

Report: Julian Randall