The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir

Product Description
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. \n“The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion.”—Manolo Blahnik\nNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Fortune • Garden & Gun • New York Post\nDuring 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.\nThere, 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.\nThe 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.\nWoven 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.\nThe 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.
Review
“The joy of reading about André Leon Talley’s journey in
The Chiffon Trenches is coupled with knowing that he survived and thrived by being revered and respected by those at every level of fashion.
That never goes out of style.”
—Tamron Hall, award-winning journalist and host of Tamron Hall\n“André Leon Talley’s fantastic memoir,
The Chiffon Trenches, is a riveting, enthralling, and heartbreaking read, tracing the incredible arc of his life from growing up in the Jim Crow South to what it took for him to come to New York and, thanks to his vast talent and work ethic, gain the respect and recognition of the legends of his day, including Diana Vreeland, Andy Warhol, Karl Lagerfeld, and Anna Wintour. André has lived life at the epicenter of the most glamourous worlds of fashion in both Paris and New York; and now this book is one more chapter in his amazing legacy.”
—Wendy Goodman, design editor of New York“André Leon Talley is the preeminent fashion historian of his generation. His rare quality of mind and the depth of his knowledge infuse
The Chiffon Trenches with a spirited voice, keen sensibility, and cultural intellect. The poly-sonic narrative incorporates histories of styles and collections; reveals fashion politics imbued with racism, power plays, fears, and ignorance; and describes with compelling honesty the impact of these forces on his black body.”
—Dr. Janis A. Mayes, African/Diasporan Francophone Studies, Syracuse University\n“
The Chiffon Trenches chronicles the remarkable life of trailblazing fashion icon André Leon Talley as he breaks new ground in an industry rife with racism, prejudice, and bias. An honest, candid memoir full of vulnerable and authentic