Picture: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
The title alone he would have beloved: “The Assortment of André Leon Talley.” On January 27, simply over a yr after the legendary trend editor died on the age of 73, Talley’s worldly possessions went up on the market via the primary of a sequence of on-line auctions at Christie’s. A reside public sale might be held in New York on February 15. (Proceeds from each go to his former church buildings, Abyssinian Baptist in New York and Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist in Durham, North Carolina.) The 460 tons inform of his tastes, his friendships, and possibly just a few issues that his two memoirs by no means divulged. There are caftans galore in couture silks and satins and a number of units of monogrammed Louis Vuitton baggage — constant, maybe, with the imaginings of a younger man from the South who noticed himself dancing on the tables at Membership Sept in Paris. There’s a heart-shaped Valentine’s field from Andy Warhol and a unprecedented variety of images, notes, and drawings from buddies, together with Karl Lagerfeld, proof that at the same time as that shut relationship faltered, Talley nonetheless valued it. A dozen of his most intimate buddies — a gaggle that included Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, and Pat Cleveland — every chosen one merchandise from the public sale catalogue that stirred a reminiscence or mirrored his character.
After one of many couture exhibits in Paris — Yves Saint Laurent, I feel — I had lunch with André on the restaurant L’Avenue. We shoppers had been all ready for the home to get the samples again to the showroom so we may go and check out them on; it was a mad sprint to suit into any earlier than Nan Kempner acquired them. That day, André was carrying this purple alligator coat, and he was so pleased with it; he stored speaking to me about how “the whole lot needs to be alligator!”
I used to be anxious to recover from to the Saint Laurent showroom. We acquired as much as depart, and it was pouring rain.
I mentioned, “, we’re shut by. We may make a run for it.” And he mentioned, “For those who suppose I’m going exterior with this brand-new alligator coat, you’re loopy!”
To me, as a Southerner, alligators are in the identical genus as cockroaches. They’re pests. I mentioned, “Alligators reside within the water within the first place. What’s going to occur if it will get moist?” Keep in mind how André used to scream? Nicely, he let loose that scream. And he took my hand and mentioned, “We’re having espresso and dessert. We’re ready this out.”
It took two hours. After all, by the point I acquired to the showroom, all the great samples had been snapped up. He was pretty and snarky and one of the vital entertaining individuals I’ve ever met.
Lot 175: Inexperienced-and-white caftan, Diane von Furstenberg
Picture: Courtesy of Lisa Love
André was bigger than life in the whole lot he did, however as a houseguest he really surpassed expectations. He’d go to us within the summers, wearing certainly one of his extremely stylish caftans, and immediately be a supply of enjoyment and the middle of our transfixed consideration. This was very true of my younger nieces and nephews: The youngsters adored André and noticed him as a grasp of ceremonies, ringleader, Pied Piper, and summer-house CEO. We had a convention of creating brief movies, and André took to this exercise like Orson Welles, using round in our golf cart, establishing photographs, telling everybody what to do, and, in fact, usually casting himself in a starring function. You could possibly hear him wherever you had been, and also you all the time wished to be a part of no matter he was doing. This {photograph}, which has delight of place in our giant gallery of household images (that’s our canine Scout), takes me proper again to these magical visits — and jogs my memory simply how a lot I miss him.
I should have given these circumstances to André, as a result of the exhausting circumstances with the graffiti had been made for the runway solely. And so they didn’t truly perform as a result of Vuitton didn’t need the luggage stolen. So that they weren’t practical; the locks didn’t open. That’s a really particular assortment to me, and I’m positive having them was thrilling to André. Once I observed them within the catalogue, I believed, Oh, I’d wish to bid on these.
I used to be on the prepare station in Paris on my option to spend the summer time with Karl Lagerfeld within the south of France, and this very tall, slim younger man got here towards me. He had glowing eyes. He was in love, it appeared, with one thing inside himself. He mentioned to me, “Oh my God, you’re Pat Cleveland!” I used to be astonished. He had apparently written some letter to Vogue asking about me as a result of I had achieved these exhibits for Style Truthful with Mrs. Johnson from Ebony journal. He grew up these photos. Anyway, I needed to depart on the prepare.
I went again to New York. At some point, I used to be visiting a good friend, Peter Lester, and I am going into his home, and sitting there’s André. I used to be like, I acknowledge this younger man! And he stood up and he gave me a hug. I mentioned, “Oh my gosh, how are you doing?” And he mentioned, “I’m on the lookout for a job.”
I used to be shut buddies with Andy Warhol; earlier, Peter had wished to put in writing, so I’d launched him to Andy at Interview. So I turned to Peter and I mentioned, “You’re working at Interview. Why don’t you introduce André to Andy?”
Later, when André had the job with Andy, we began speaking about Mrs. Vreeland. And I mentioned, “I feel Mrs. Vreeland wants some assist over on the museum. You must meet her.” And after I noticed her once more, I mentioned, “If you’d like an assistant on the Met, I do know one.” And earlier than you knew it, André was working together with her.
I picked this print of Mrs. Vreeland as a result of their love story is so intense. André stayed together with her when she actually wanted somebody close to. He was capable of give her the consolation and the friendship that she wanted from somebody as fancy and as dreamy as André.
This collage brings again reminiscences of the loopy, magical time André and I spent chronicling French trend for WWD and W in Paris. This was approach earlier than André’s caftan-clad years. He wore trim, tailor-made, bespoke Dior fits on our many visits to the inside sanctums of one of the best couturiers, and his thumbs-up on a set was one thing French designers prized mightily. I loved making “actual home-cooked” dinners for him adopted by dancing at Membership Sept, throughout which he would toss me up within the air again and again. At that cut-off date — the late ’70s to early ’80s — André was the human embodiment of an exclamation level.
I made garments for André till the tip of his life, typically simply easy caftans — some in taffeta and a few in plain cotton poplin for dwelling. He was all the time very particular concerning the form of taffeta that he wished, and I’d ship him swatches prematurely.
This coat is certainly one of my favorites. Extremely opulent and one thing that few males may pull off, but it surely suited André fantastically. It’s regal, and so was André.
André was one of many first individuals to encourage me to proceed to color portraits. Once I lived in NYC on Fifth Avenue and seventeenth Road, he used to return by my loft and hang around. I used to be simply desirous about being with him and watching him. We acquired on like a home on fireplace.
Every thing needed to be bigger than the very pinnacle of life for André. So it comes as no shock that after I started to decorate him, the whole lot needed to be heightened to a degree above couture. He would sit again like a toddler selecting coloured jelly beans and rip swatches from coloration playing cards in his merchandising insanity.
That is probably the most majestic and commanding design that I ever made for him. We referred to as it the Shogun Gown Imperial. He wished it for his official portrait and to put on to “extremely vital occasions.” The fabric was vanilla with vast black stripes that ran the size of it. I made a decision to “floor” it with the stripes working across the circumference on the backside, and to attain this, we needed to create dozens of deep darts to curve the coat. We created sleeves folded up into one another after which lengthy, trailing ties with a reference to the movie The Blair Witch Venture … After all, at his fittings, he roared over the perverse reference.