André Leon Talley

"Discover what truly happens behind the scenes in the world of high fashion in this detailed, storied memoir from style icon, bestselling author, and former Vogue creative director André Leon Talley. During André Leon Talley's first magazine job assisting Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decade's long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, Talley moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers. But as Talley made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he developed an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour, and as she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, Talley became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches is a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion, and proof that fact is always fascinatingly more devilish than fiction. André Leon Talley's engaging memoir tells the story of how he not only survived but thrived--despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry--to become one of the most legendary voices and faces in fashion"--

A Memoir

The Chiffon Trenches

Honest, detailed, lovely, and provides an inside look into a deeply internal world - high fashion, and from an original voice. It is also a challenge to be a Black, Queer man in fashion, so I am thankful to have the opportunity to read ALT’s beautiful writing. 

Patty Pforte

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this "captivating" (Time) memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments. "The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion."--Manolo Blahnik NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR * Fortune * Garden & Gun * New York Post During André Leon Talley's first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived--despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry--to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion. Woven throughout the book are also André's own personal struggles that have impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he has turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Fürstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and ongoing faith, which have guided him since childhood. The result is a highly compelling read that captures the essence of a world few of us will ever have real access to, but one that we all want to know oh so much more about.

olivia musick

4.5 / 5

was lucky enough to have received this book in a goodreads giveaway & am so happy i did!

if you're keen on fashion, this is a must-read. ALT offers an expansive and detailed account of his life and career, from days spent with andy warhol in the 70s to a recent trip to africa with naomi campbell. when reading this, i felt like a young kid, listening to their grandparents tell stories of their lives. truly recommend!

knocked off .5 of a star just because it doesn't seem as though the book is laid out chronologically, which for me, often leads to confusion.

Archita Birla

This book was a joy to read. I learned so much from it, and honestly felt in many ways honored to have gotten to read ALT’s thoughts. I am deeply passionate about fashion, but it is a world I do not really know, and this gave me a little peak behind the curtain. I also think it’s so important to recognize the significance of ALT’s career and his journey. Even if you don’t know a ton about fashion, I think this book could still be really enjoyable (warranted that it at least interests you!)

Cindy

I read this and felt pretty sad that the main undercurrents of the memoir are the dissolution of ALT's friendships with Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour. Even as we're introduced to Karl and Anna, you can feel the salt lingering behind ALT's words, especially with words like: I’m not belittling myself to say my strength was in my ability to be beside a small, great, powerful white woman. He acknowledges the long-held and unbalanced power of whiteness in the fashion industry and all the hoops he's had to jump through as a POC, but even though his friendships with Karl and Anna are but a thing of the past, there's still a longing for that "favorable" position of a white person's second-in-command or token POC best friend that feels off to me. It's a deservedly bitter tone but I wish it hadn't felt so one-note. Like instead of challenging why there were so few seats at the table for POC in the industry, he doesn't really do much more than downright covet and look back with rosy retrospection on how he lost that lone seat that was once his.

The Chiffon Trenches provides some juicy tea on the fashion industry of decades past, such as the Karl vs. YSL rivalry, but ALT's voice (which is so uniquely positioned to do the following!) doesn't offer anything terribly groundbreaking, prophetic, or reckoning of an industry that is long overdue for change. In this sense, the book does feel like a missed opportunity.

But that said, the book is entertaining and ALT's ascent into the world of fashion is still inspiring on its own. It's just difficult not to read the resignation between the lines and subsequently feel stuck beneath all the secondhand salt.

The Chiffon Trenches A Memoir

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