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Andre Leon Talley: the fashion guru gets to the bottom of what makes the fashion maven tick

Interview, Nov, 2003 by Andre Leon Talley

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MP: Okay. So let's play a little game with the past. Let's look at some recent decades in terms of the changes in what is understood as being elegant. What was elegance in the '50s?

ALT: In the '50s, elegance was dictated by one place: Paris. And it was based on social strata, social position.

MP: The '60s?

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ALT: Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, the youth, the Pill. Liberation. The miniskirt. The elegance was London, and London represented a kind of liberation of the mind and spirit. The Beatles, Mary Quant, the whole change of society. For me, the '70s was about a kind of indulgence of elegance. Elegance was Diana Ross. Elegance was the music people, but in a different way than today. Today elegance in the music world is different--in the '70s, people in music were more elegant. There's nothing more elegant than Marvin Gaye--not only his voice but the way he dressed. For me, in this country, elegance was about the culture of soul music. It's Diana Ross, James Brown, Marvin Gaye--and disco, disco, disco was a big factor. I'm not saying that disco dressing was the most important thing, but there was elegance in disco clothing. Although today you might look back and think it's horrible, but then it was fantastic. Men were very pivotal and important--John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977), that white suit.

MP: The "80s?

ALT: Mass appreciation of exuberance and affluence. Flashiness, new money, people were making money. The '80s were about consumption in another way than the '50s. Your label on your back made you think you were elegant, especially if you dressed in that world of high style. Does that make sense to you what I'm saying?

MP: Absolutely--the "90s?

ALT: More probing, more contemplative, a reaction to the '80s and mass consumerism and vulgarity. In the '90s there was a return to a kind of intellectual elegance, a sensibility about clothes being a vary important part of your life, but it was a pragmatic chic.

MP: And now?

ALT: Now? Well, after September 11, 2001, fashion went into a very dark period. In the last year it's come out of that period and it's going back into what fashion should be--desire. Women are wanting to get dressed up again with more attention to a kind of glamour. Maybe it's the '40s, maybe it's the '50s, maybe it's the '30s, but it's glamorous without just being Hollywood flamboyance. And it's back again to the thing that I grew up with--the glove, the handbag, the shoe. The most important thing for a woman to me is her eyes, her hands, her feet, her ankles, her legs. Not the breast or the derriere. I mean, those are erotic zones that most people universally consider the sexy part of a woman. But it's the turn of her hand, the way a woman wears her shoes, the turn of her ankle, the pivotal way the ball of her feet move within her shoe.

MP: I think I hear the next book. [both laugh]

Andre Leon Talley: the fashion guru gets to the bottom of what makes the fashion maven tick

Interview, Nov, 2003 by Andre Leon Talley

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