3.5* rounded up

I think it's difficult to review someone's life so I've ended up just going for how much I've enjoyed it. ALT is known for being a fashion powerhouse at Vogue, and a judge on ANTM amongst other things and I did enjoy my trip into The Chiffon Trenches overall.

There did seem to be a lot of name-dropping in this book; as someone who is interested in some of the fashion houses/designers this wasn't a problem for me as I thought this would be the main body of the book. I do feel that it did get a bit repetitive by the end though and people who he had fallen out with (Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour) were still mentioned frequently. I also felt that at times he seemed resentful of new people coming into the world of fashion. I was also a bit disappointed that there was no mention whatsoever about his time on ANTM, particularly because I was a big fan!

I know this sounds like I didn't enjoy the book, when I did. I really loved the level of detail in his descriptions about different outfits worn by himself and others as well as him describing his trips to Paris Fashion Week, the Met Gala and Marc Jacobs's wedding.

Would I recommend this to everyone? No, I wouldn't. But if you enjoy fashion and memoirs then it was an enjoyable read!

To note: ALT does discuss his troubled upbringing and his issues with weight/food which may be difficult for some to read.

Both enjoyable and pretty shallow; Talley's memoir provides a fascinating insight into the fashion world from 1970s to present day, reads quickly, in an afternoon in my case, yet it does not resonate.

A behind the scenes memoir from fashion powerhouse and legend Andre Leon Talley. I knew of ALT but didn't know anything of his background or how he got into fashion, which is why I wanted to pick up the book as I thought it would be fascinating. And it was fascinating at times, ALT has been close to so many famous and influential people, not just in the fashion world but outside it. We learn a small bit about his childhood, being raised by his grandmother and how he studied French and has a Masters in French Literature. He had initially planned to teach French but the fashion world kept calling to him. He did an apprenticeship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he caught the eye of Vogue editor in chief Diana Vreeland. The top names in fashion crop up in this book: Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell, Marc Jacobs. I could go on and on. This is truly a look into how the other half live, of couture, expensive hotels, private jets, lavish gifts.

I did feel a times things were a bit disjointed. Sometimes this made it feel like it was having a conversation with a friend where you get distracted and talk about something else before going back to the main point of conversation. Other times it veered on the side of rambling. And while there are plenty of recognisable names, there were so many that aren't immediately known to people and while they are no doubt well known in the fashion world and people probably think very highly of these people. when you're not as clued into that world as I am, it makes it a bit confusing to keep track of the people. Andre speaks a lot about his Southern charm and manners, which I have no doubt he has. But I felt like that made him hold back on some stories or how he felt, especially when it comes to talking about his fall outs with Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour. He speaks very briefly about his childhood sexual abuse, something that has clearly impacted on him severely and to me, this made the fact that he still makes time for Anna Wintour when she deems to want his professional input, despite the fact she has coldly cut him off, really sad

Overall, I did like being wrapped up in this world and the pictures included are fantastic. Andre is so dapper, I want to seek out more of those images. He has a previous memoir and I think I may read that. I feel like that may be better as a way to discover more about his life, while this would be a good follow up for his world in the 'chiffon trenches'. I think if you have interest in the fashion world and know more than I do, you may appreciate this a lot more. I would rate this 2.5 stars, however instead of rounding up to 3 stars, I'm going to mark 2 stars. Purely because absolutely nothing about America's Next Top Model is mentioned, not even the fact he was a judge. And I really wanted some sweet ANTM gossip

This book came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. I learned so much and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Chiffon Trenches is on one hand a dream to see into the life of a great such as André Leon Talley; it's a deep dive straight into the heart of the fashion industry. A fairly quick, easy read; enjoyable.

The Chiffon Trenches is an eye opening look at the fashion world covering 50 years. Andre Leon Talley has counted and still counts among his friends and contacts some of the biggest names in fashion. As a reader you learn not only of how ALT spent his childhood and got his start in fashion but how he became the most influential man in fashion and what he faced to get there.
Books like this can often come across as gossipy and sometimes bitchy but for the most Chiffon Trenches avoids that, in the second half it does start to lean more towards this and a hint of bitterness enters the narrative.

On the whole Chiffon Trenches is a great read for anyone interested in fashion.

I was given a copy of The Chiffon Trenches by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

A brilliant insight into the murky world of fashion! Not as good as The Vanity Fair Diaries which seems to have spawned a series of these kind of books, but gossipy and fun nonetheless.

“The car’s a rental, my luggage is Louis Vuitton!”

I can't imagine being more concerned about expensive luggage after a near death experience but I guess I'm not Andre Leon Talley, the giant of a man who ruled fashion alongside Anna Wintour. This is a quote that stood out to me because it sums up the conflict I felt throughout this book. It's clear the author believed this line would sound incredibly clever but there is a terrible sadness behind it, and a man who maybe values other people and things more than he values himself.

Much of The Chiffon Trenches made me feel this way. Many facts and phrases are repeated again and again, so at times it feels like indulgently listening to the glory days recollections of a favoured grandparent. Luckily that grandparent has some incredible stories to tell. Unhappily, there is very little depth. ALT spends his life in a bubble of excess where everything is fine this fine that, fine linen, fine furnishings and fine antiques, sometimes in the space of a few sentences as if the man himself is overawed. While he bemoans the wrongs done to him, he manages to perhaps unwittingly sort his own circle into who gave what most generously. I was shocked to find myself considering the position of Wintour, who led an intervention for ALT to address his weight and when he failed, supported his health with further paid rehab attempts. That isn't a friend who doesn't care, that is a friend who can no longer enable your self sabotage and sadly has to move on. To his credit Talley does fully admit to his binge eating demons and the darkness that surrounds him.

But also there is light, if you care to look for it. Perhaps later than he might have ALT comes to recognise his own Black excellence. Undeniably he carved the way for so many of us, by being not just the only Black man in the room but joyously so, flamboyant and larger than life. In his own way Andre Leon Talley is a titan of fashion just as much as those he idolises, making space for Beyonce on the cover of Vogue, Virgil Abloh running menswear at Louis Vuitton and Sir Edward Enninful at the prestigious helm of British Vogue. There will be a six foot six, caftan shaped hole left in the fabric of fashion when he goes, and I doubt anyone will be able to fill those Robert Vivier shoes.

André Leon Talley has been a powerhouse in the fashion industry for decades; in fact, for most of his life. I first knew of him when he was a judge in America's Top Model, but the more I learnt about fashion, I could see he was everywhere. That said, I hadn't read any of his other books and I didn't know much about his private life.

The book is full of interesting anecdotes and the number of 20th century legends Talley has met is quite astounding. It is almost like he's gossiping with you while you're sitting at a café. However, this can also play to its detriment. It doesn't feel like there's a story guiding the book, or a point he's trying to make; it can read like a long list of celebrities he had a few laughs with, parties he went to, and the kind of shoes and socks he was wearing when doing this or seeing that person. The stories didn't tell me anything, aside from the fact that a few people were awful or racist.

Although I knew of many of the people he talked about, there were also others I didn't know, and it can be hard to follow or even boring if you're not already familiar with their personal lives and their work. I think the book can only be truly enjoyed by people who are incredibly knowledgeable, not just on fashion, but on the editorial world of fashion magazines from the US and Europe from at least the 60s.

Finally, I wish some subjects were treated a bit more compassionately. Talley mentions Marie-Hélène de Rostchild's "deformed" hands and her "deformity" in a tone that seems unnecessarily unkind. His sexual abuse is also very casually mentioned, in the middle of a chapter that has nothing to do with it and therefore makes it sound like a throwaway comment. It made me incredibly sad. I understand he might not be able to express the trauma more explicitly than saying that someone "took his youth", and that's fine, but I wish someone had helped him place it better; maybe on the first chapter, when talking about his childhood, or later, when detailing his date with Paul Mathias.

In short, I think the book has many interesting stories and paints a picture of the fashionable elite in New York and Paris of Talley's time, but one needs to be very confortable with the characters and time period to fully enjoy it.

This book mostly made me sad. André Leon Talley has written a book supposedly telling it all - and he does tell a lot of things about the inner workings of Vogue, of the micro-aggressions he endured as one of the very few black people in the fashion world and as a black gay man in particular. Weirdly enough I never got a concrete understanding how much of the awful treatment he received was due to his identity and how much was just the way the fashion world worked, and it made me so very sad for him. I enjoyed being able to glimpse behind the curtain and I enjoyed how petty André Leon Talley allowed himself to be. I do think the book promises something in the introduction it then never delivers on: Talley does not spend a lot of time ruminating on the role of race in his trajectory, but rather tells of his life as he experienced it - and apparently he experienced it mainly as a means to wear extravagant clothes which he describes in minute detail, from the way things looked to where he got them to who complimented him on them - and that part of the book I was not that keen on. Reading between the lines, Talley seems profoundly lonely and I sometimes wished he would be more honest about that - but then again, he can choose to tell his story in any way he wishes.

As soon as I read about this book, I knew I wanted to read it. Maybe that meant that I was expecting too much - it definitely didn't live up to my expectations. I was fully prepared to love it, and I just didn't. I think I wanted more depth more than anything. ALT spends a lot of the book telling us about how great he is at fashion, but he never shows us. There was also an awful lot of name dropping, which is fine to some extent, but here it just seemed fawning and over the top. I enjoyed it and read it quickly, but was a bit disappointed.

A name dropper who was dropped, André Leon Talley’s latest memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, charts his life and career through the glittering war zone of fashion’s front row and his time at American Vogue. From his childhood in the southern states of America, raised by his grandmother, to New York, bouncing between there and Paris, depending on his roles at various magazines, it’s a who’s who (or who he knows) of fashion and society in one of the most exciting periods of 20th century fashion. Think the great 1970s period of Yves Saint Laurent.

While I’ve never read Talley’s journalistic work, being pictured on the arm or by the side of American Vogue editor Anna Winter saw him enter fashion folklore. With his voluminous kaftans and capes he became a memorable fashion caricature alongside Wintour’s bob and dark sunglasses.

As a journalist, this is lite and while he thinks he’s describing things, throwing in a few French terms just feels a bit dated and doesn’t impress. Well, not this side of the pond anyway. It’s fluff.

The beef between YSL and Karl Lagerfeld is legendary and it’s interesting to hear about his dealings with John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, but apart from that there’s no great insight other than continually reminding you how he knows his fashion history and what a great dresser Lee Radziwill (Jackie O’s sister) was.

Clearly used to the golden years of magazines, when you could expense everything, had a car at your disposal and got put up in the Ritz, he glosses over his failings, like losing his job at Ebony, they couldn’t afford him, or so he says, and then messing up a huge opportunity writing YSL’s book because he took much on and didn’t have the time. Doesn’t look good, or sound professional.

Wintour and Lagerfeld dropped him a few years back, so the reason behind writing this book was probably the death of the latter. He knew that his friendship with Lagerfeld was the reason Wintour held him so close.

This, along with his documentary, The Gospel According To André, has a feeling of still trying to stay relevant and visible. But, what does he do exactly? He seems to mostly accompany rich women when they go shopping. He loves ‘a strictly private invitation funeral mass’ and has to drop in how he’s always frow or got a select invite to something or another.

He hates it when others don’t like his chosen gifts. It’s a lot of giving and receiving special stuff. All about the alligator. It has to be the best, most expensive and this attitude feels again dated. He moans about people treating him badly yet carries on doing things for them or going to their launches and dinners. He wants to feel important. Has to.

He compares Naomi Campbell to Elizabeth Taylor. Really? #eyeroll And addresses Edward Enninful as a Sir, which he’s not. He has an OBE, and, for a man who think he knows everything, this feels like a stupid thing not to know. I'm surprised the publisher didn't pick this up.

Sycophantic, he’s like one of those people who hears something new then acts like they invented it. It’s all Goyard luggage and blacked out cars. He’s sucked in by breeding and heritage and he's spoilt by a free and expensed lifestyle. Those days are over.

The book is quite repetitive; Met Gala, Anna Wintour Costume Center, Diana Vreeland, Lagerfeld, Chanel, Chanel, Chanel…

There’s a best dressed list at the end of the book and even a ‘picture section’.

Takeaway - He’s a self-professed ’elegant walker’ and, while bitter about his detachment from Wintour, Talley has kept all the receipts, literally, and they are all here to read. Burn.
http://www.thechicgeek.co.uk/book-the-chiffon-trenches-by-andre-leon-talley

You know that axiom, 'if you've got nothing good to say about someone then say nothing'? Seems like ALT has internalised it. Which may be very good for his soul but it makes this book duller that I expected. It's not so much chiffon 'trenches', as chiffon cosy-up-together-on the frow.

ALT has had an amazing career and he seems to know everyone in the fashion/social world. His love of style and clothes comes over as absolutely genuine - but it's quite hard to get a handle on his life and career from this book. And that's partly because he withholds. Ok, there's no rule that says he *must* ditch the dirt - but the constant stream of how wonderful *everyone* is and what good friends they are (up until the point at which they ditch him...) doesn't make for the best reading.

After the early years, it's quite hard to even get a handle on what ALT's actual job is: he flits around with Anna Wintour (till she cuts him dead) and seems to socialise full time. There are brief mentions of the abuse which stifled his ability to have healthy sexual relationships and his toxic relationship with food, but even these painful revelations are submerged beneath a kind of thankfulness that he's had such a glorious life.

I'd love to read a biography of ALT - this is fun but it feels distinctly like there's another story there just waiting to be told.

Andre Leon Talley: The Chiffon Trenches, 9780008342357, 4th Estate, UK, hardback

“The Chiffon Trenches” is a great title, it promises access to serious fashion gossip about such heavyweights like Anna Wintour, Yves St. Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld and it does not disappoint. The title certainly drew me to read this memoir by Andre Leon Talley who is now in his seventies, one of the first colored style icons who made it into the high echelons of fashion, first working for the famous Diana Vreeland, becoming part of Andy Warhol’s inner circle, landing the job of Paris bureau chief of Women’s Wear Daily working for the notoriously difficult John Fairchild and finally reaching the heights as creative director of Vogue under Anna Wintour who everyone now knows as the A class bitch in the movie “The Devil wears Prada” . . He had majored in French at university and always being drawn to fashion like a magnet, at Vogue he became one of the most influential gay men in fashion leading an extraordinary high powered life, famous for his unusual dress style.
I just could not get over the fact how the world of these incredibly rich people seems to revolve around nothing but fashion and creating an impression, what brand or what clothes to wear or which parties to attend all documented painstakingly by Andre in his candid memoir. It is past and beyond me how much money is spent on couture clothes, luxury hotels and holidays or other luxury items and how very little else seems to matter. Some of these accounts literally made me shake my head at such decadence. The court of Louis XVI came to mind. Andre Leon Talley was raised in the South by his religious grandmother after his mother showed little interest in him; religion continued to feed his soul throughout his adult life particularly in his later years when things did not go so smoothly anymore and he being overweight became a serious issue in this superficial world.
“The Chiffon Trenches” provides a rare glimpse and a behind the scene account of what it was like to work with such fashion czars as Yves St. Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, Gianni Versace etc.. Andre Leon Talley had his own demons to deal with and is very honest about the hurt and bruises he received in dealing with such highly egocentric people. The world of fashion is a pretty brutal and a ruthless one and I am sure Andre’s version is still an edited one, it was very interesting to step into this foreign world .

This is a proper insider’s guide to the bubble of the fashion world over the past few decades. Although the author is candid and honest about his childhood, personal struggles and insecurities he is confident in his status as a key figure in this world and offers some real insights into the tempestuous lives of the designers and the fickle and flashy world they occupy. It’s uneven in parts and he vascillates between gushing platitudes and catty gossip, as well as presumably positioning himself as someone who only endeavours to be a true friend/esteemed colleague etc but then is cast aside by various key figures according to their whims. He is definitely a contradictory, fascinating figure with a real credibility to his insights, so anyone interested in fashion would get a lot from it.

The Chiffon Trenches is fashion journalist André Leon Talley’s second memoir. He is open and (as the title suggests) not afraid to hold back on the details – when it comes to both the people who have crossed him and stunning outfits on his famous friends.

In The Chiffon Trenches, André gives us an account of his childhood (he was raised by his grandmother and had a tempestuous relationship with his mother), his career trajectory (from his first job at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine through to his time as Creative Director and then Editor-at-Large for American Vogue) and the myriad celebs he’s encountered and befriended through the years.

André also discusses racism and discrimination within the fashion industry. He talks openly about how being a black man in the fashion industry made him a rarity and interestingly discusses brands that are diverse and inclusive and those that are not.

I loved discovering how First Lady Jackie Kennedy was the catalyst for his love of fashion and that he went onto become very good friends with her sister, Lee Radziwell. André really did move in exceptional circles.

He had – in my opinion – toxic relationships with two of the biggest names in fashion: US Vogue editor Anna Wintour and designer Karl Lagerfeld. He makes it clear how much each friendship meant to him and was friends with both of them for years and years, but it sadly ended with him being ignored and cut off by both of them. Without him seemingly knowing why in each situation. There are weird dynamics happening, for example Anna Wintour cuts him from Vogue and is cold to him, but he still inexplicably attends her clothes fittings as an advisor out of ‘loyalty’?

I loved the dive behind the scenes of high fashion but I left this book feeling sorry for André. A terrible incident when he was young meant he had trouble letting himself become close to anyone, so never had a significant relationship. Then he was cast aside by two friends he thought of as very close, so yes, he comes across as bitter at times, but perhaps this is justified. It also sort of feels like he was a little used through his career, never quite getting the solid recognition or satisfaction he was looking for and that makes me feel a little sad.

It's hard to believe now, but in the 1990s to the early 200s was an era where fashion dominated the cultural landscape in a very different way than it does now. Fashion was dictated through the pages of magazines, by the models (Kate, Christy, Linda, Naomi, Claudia, and Cindy) who commanded not just fashion's gaze but also pop culture's, and above it all, the biggest, most exclusive (and yet you could get a look, once a month) arbiter of what was fashionable, Vogue as edited by Anna Wintour.

And with Anna came Andre. As an ardent reader of Vogue in the 1990s-2000s, I remember Andre Leon Talley. He was a man who could make a designer, a model, a socialite, with a wave of words in his columns, which were breathless word explosions drawing parallels between tshirts and history. They were dramatic and excessive and fascinating.

As it turns out, so was Andre. A man from the rural south who managed to push past every social and racial barrier like they were nothing (he seems to only have realized the enormity of what he's accomplished in the past few years) to become not just a fixture in fashion, but a force, from the late 1970s to say, 2005 or so. (He was with Vogue for longer, but in his later and final years with Vogue, he and the rest of the magazine's staff, including and especially Anna were willfully and woefully ignorant of the increasing democratization of fashion.)

In The Chiffon Trenches, Talley goes through his career in fashion, from the beginning when he worked with Diana Vreeland, through his period where he was one of the arbiters of style (he and Karl Lagerfeld were "the best of friends" which explains why, for example, in the late 1990s, having Chanel anything was a huge deal and why Lagerfeld's awfullness was not just tolerated but celebrated. Karl was a monster, imo, and something Andre Leon Talley apparently only recognized after Karl stopped speaking to him, but a lot of The Chiffon Trenches is Andre explaining how and why he didn't realize how awful people like Karl or Anna could be.

There is a fair amount of fashion gossip, but most of it is about people who no longer matter (Galliano) or who are dead. The anger I'd expected him to have toward Anna is tempered with the obvious longing he has to go back--back to when what he said mattered to the world of fashion, back to the days when his entire life was expensed, to when he could fly to Paris one day, stay for three weeks, return to New York and do it all over again. And yes, he is now aware that he lived in a gilded cage, and he seems glad to be free of it even as one senses he misses the material trappings.

I found The Chiffon Trenches to be just like Andre's old Vogue columns--there's beautiful descriptions of gorgeous things, enough bitchy and dishy commentary to keep you hooked, and, sadly (for me) a lot of explaining away difficult or stupid behavior as "but then, it's only/just fashion."

Andre Leon Talley's legacy to fashion will be reckoned with for years to come. He will matter more than Anna (who I think has overstayed her time, who now only matters for what seems meaningless (Met Gala, cough) ever did or will. And he should, because he loves and lives for fashion. And Anna Wintour, by his own admission, doesn't. She cares about power and though she's trying to fight it, her reign is over. And Andre is still here.

Prior to reading this book, André Leon Talley was a recognisable figure to me. I knew he had worked at Vogue with Anna Wintour, was a regular on the Front row of fashion shows and had heard that this memoir would spill the beans on his relationship with Anna Wintour. Apart from that I knew little else; I had not read his previous memoir ALT or watched any documentaries about him. This book is a full, in-depth description of his career and the people he encountered along the way. He speeds through his childhood in the opening chapter and then describes how his career progressed from working as an unpaid intern and working with Andy Warhol on Interview Magazine to his time at Women’s Wear Daily and his periods working at Vogue.

As you would expect from a memoir such as this, André Leon Talley namedrops throughout; to the extent that it is, sometimes, impossible to keep up and you need to reread a few paragraphs to figure out who is connected to who. His descriptions of the fashion world and his experiences in 1970’s New York are glorious and feature Halston, Bianca Jagger, Diane Von Furstenberg and the De La Rentas. There are fabulous photos of him with Andy Warhol and dancing with Diana Ross. His passion for his work and his determination to build his career comes across strongly, as well as how much fun he was having. He clarifies though that “I never spent a dime on drugs. My money was spent on luxury”.

This memoir offers a glimpse into a world very few of us will ever inhabit and which also doesn’t seem to exist to the same extent anymore. The tales he tells of the rivalry between fashion designers (particularly Karl Lagerfeld and Yves St Laurent), the parties, the trips and expenses are unimaginable to many of us. So much of it is fascinating. However, the minutiae with which he describes some of it is unnecessary and can be quite tedious to read. He often describes what people were shopping for or every detail of their outfits. This is in contrast to the lack of detail he uses when describing the personal parts of his life that he clearly doesn’t want to discuss on any deep emotional level e.g. his parents not living with him, abuse he suffered, realising he was gay and never finding a partner to share his life with. The only exception to this is where he describes his experiences of racism throughout his career as ‘the only black man amount a sea of white titans of style’. It may be that his personal life was covered more in his earlier memoir or that the clue is in the title and the ‘Chiffon Trenches’ are what he found most difficult; it does however seem strange. Also, while this memoir does describe his long working and personal relationship with Anna Wintour, I found it concentrated more on his friendship with Karl Lagerfeld.

Overall, this book provides a fascinating insight into the fashion world from 1970s to present. Sometimes, however, the random anecdotes about new individuals not previously mentioned, the jumping around in time and detailed descriptions of clothing can feel a little tedious. I think listening to this as an audiobook would be great as André Talley narrates it and I think his emphasis/tone of voice would help convey more about the stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and 4th Estate for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.

I found myself rather conflicted by this book. At times it was absolutely fascinating. Talley literally had a front row seat at some of the biggest fashion happenings of the last fifty years. His close relationship with Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour and his long and illustrious career saw to that. Parts of this book are phenomenal. I enjoyed his point of view as a man of colour in fashion, and also his humble beginnings and the enmeshing of his old and new lives. Having said that there are moments where I think a stronger editorial hand is called for. There is a fair bit of repetition throughout the book and it really doesn't serve the narrative well, especially given that his decades in the business mean that there is so much that isn't in the book and could have been included. I also found it sadder than I thought it would be. It seems clear that much of the world of fashion is cruel. I felt sad that Talley seems grateful that his friends haven't dropped him because of his size, which made me think what kind of friendships must he be used to. Certainly the brutality of working for the Conde Nast group is shown in a less than flattering light here, and there are times when Talley seems to be settling old scores of his own, which were not entirely to my taste. Having said that. If you are interested in the world of fashion, this is a must read.

Kind of what you would expect from this remarkable man. Lots of fascinating analysis of the curious characters at the summit of the fashion world yet almost no self-awareness - possibly essential to his success.