Princewill Pius
In his new memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, André Leon Talley spoke about the influential role Anna Wintour had on his career. Talley shared that, when in 1983 he got a job as a fashion news editor at Vogue, Wintour was the creative director at the time. She eventually became a “powerful ally” of his, as he recalled in Chiffon Trenches (via the Daily Mail). Despite this bond, Talley admitted he was “terribly afraid” of her, something his late friend, famed artist Andy Warhol, used to tease him about.
Talley also recounted the winding journey both he and Wintour had early on in their careers. He said that after Wintour went to England to work as the editor of British Vogue, he became the style editor at Vanity Fair. Then Wintour came back to the U.S. to become editor of Home & Garden, and when she became the editor-in-chief of Vogue in 1988, she brought Talley with her.
Wintour then made Talley the creative director of Vogue, officially transforming him into the “highest-ranking black man in the history of fashion journalism and the most important male fashion writer,” as the Daily Mail noted. Under Wintour, Talley got the best assignments, like shooting Madonna’s first cover for the magazine in 1989 at her home in Los Angeles.
Written by: Nicki
