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A fashion
icon’s
remarkable
story
“You can be aristocratic with-
out having been born into an
aristocratic family,” remarks An-
dre- Leon Talley, reflecting on his
life in the new documentary, “The
Gospel According to André.”
Although he likely could not have
articulated that perspective when
he was a young child growing up
in the Jim Crow South, one senses
that he somehow knew it to be true
from earliest childhood.
Talley’s capacity to respond to
the beat of his own heart’s drum
comes through as he and a vari-
ety of friends -- ranging from his
former classmates and a teacher in
Durham, N. C. to fashion greats
like Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, and
Anna Wintour -- reflect on the par-
ticularity of his voice and on his
remarkable life.
The arc of Talley’s story could
hardly be more dramatic and un-
predictable. At the age of 9 or 10,
he discovered Vogue magazine at
the public library, and its world of
style and elegance became his es-
cape from the less idyllic world of
o PinionAted
J udge
June 20, 2018
by
D arleen o rtega
photo Courtesy M agnolia p iCtures
The life and career of André Leon Talley, a fashion icon who grew
up reaching for his own expressions of style even when it got him
bullied, is dramatically profiled in the new documentary, ‘The
Gospel According to André.
segregated North Carolina in the
late 1950s. Inspired by the mag-
azine pages that he would tack
up on his bedroom walls, Talley
reached for his own expressions of
style even when it got him bullied.
After attending segregated
schools in the South, Talley won
a scholarship to Brown Universi-
ty for a graduate degree in French
literature. Brown exposed him to
an effete world more tolerant of
his penchant for experimentation,
and boosted his prospects enough
to support his subsequent move to
New York City in the early 1970s.
There he began working as an aide
to Andy Warhol and Diana Vree-
land, the venerable former edi-
tor-in-chief at Vogue, and made
himself indispensable in the New
York fashion scene. Eventually he
became not only the right hand to
Vogue editor Anna Wintour (who
acknowledges that he knows more
about fashion history than she
The
does) but a person whose opinion
appears to matter to virtually ev-
eryone.
As improbable as his story
seems, Talley sees the threads to
his early life, and is that rare per-
son whose early ties still bind.
He speaks reverently and spe-
cifically of his relationship with
the grandmother who raised him,
who kept a spotless house filled
with the smells of her baking and
who loved him unconditionally.
While Talley has said that they did
not speak of how he was bullied,
he conveys how profoundly his
grandmother’s acceptance affect-
ed him. He also speaks ardently
of the lessons of style he learned
from the denizens of the black
church in Durham that he attended
while growing up, who often shed
their daily uniforms as maids and
servants to come dressed on Sun-
day in carefully assembled suits,
dresses, gloves, and elaborate
hats.
Talley’s mind and heart clear-
ly were primed for beauty and
artistic expression, and the ca-
pacity to spot those things where
they would otherwise be missed.
The grandson of a sharecropper,
he speaks, though only in pass-
ing, of the impact of slavery and
lynching on his childhood, and of
painful manifestations of racism
he has experienced in his profes-
C ontinueD on p age 4
Week in Review
First Transgender Captain
Portland
Police
Chief
Danielle
Outlaw has pro-
moted Lt. Steph-
anie Lurenco to
captain, the first
transgender
of-
ficer to hold the
position in the bu-
reau’s history, cit-
ing exceptional leadership skills.
The Friday announcement came
just prior to Saturday’s Pride Pa-
rade, in which Outlaw and other
police officers participated, and
squelched unverified claims that
Pride events would be disrupted
by a right wing groups.
er met with male immigrants
being held by Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE)
at the Sheridan federal prison
Saturday. The Democratic law-
makers and the ACLU claim the
123 detainees were being held
in violation of their rights under
Trump’s “zero tolerance” immi-
gration policy.
Shot Dead at School Track
A man who was found deceased
from a gunshot wound Sunday
morning on the track of the tem-
porary site of Grant High School
on Southeast 91st Avenue has
been identified as 30-year-old
Barak Rosen. There are no sus-
pects in custody. The state med-
Renamed Harvey Milk Street ical examiner determined Rosen
Pride Week in the LGBTQ com- died of “homicidal violence” from
munity saw the renaming of a multiple gunshot wounds.
13-block stretch of Southwest Civil Rights Champion Dies
Stark Street in honor of civil A close confidante to the late Rev.
rights pioneer Harvey Milk, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Doro-
the Portland City Council voted thy Cotton, passed away last week
unanimously Thursday to honor in her Ithaca, N.Y. retirement
the late San Franciscan, who was home at the age of 88. Cotton was
one of the first openly gay elected the only woman in King’s inner
officials before being assassinated circle of aides, marched tireless-
in 1978.
ly in civil rights demonstrations,
Immigration Detainees Visited typed King’s “I Have a Dream
U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkely and speech,” and was a major player
Ron Wyden, and Reps. Suzanne in securing Southern black people
Bonamici and Earl Blumenau- the right to vote.