Did anyone view André Leon Talley’s Christie’s Estate Auction?
First, 100% of the collections sold, totaling over $3 million. Mr. Talley’s legacy lives on in the generous donation of his estate sale proceeds to the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. And the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in his hometown, Durham, North Carolina.
The larger-than-life, 6′ 6″ André appreciated great moments with his signature red carpet custom caftans; André pours his heart out in his final publication, his memoir, The Chiffon Trenches. We learn of his successes and the many emotional and psychological scars, significantly when he ballooned to over 300 pounds; Anna Wintour considered him irrelevant and fat (he went to fat camp three times), then iced him out of his position at Vogue and excluded him from the guest list on the Met Gala red carpet.
Come to find out. Anna Wintour wasn’t the only one to give André the cold shoulder. His long-time friend, Karl Lagerfeld, 1975, became fast friends when they learned of their shared childhood abuse. Karl kicked him to the curb after a twenty-year friendship; when André asked Karl for money to stage a retrospective for the photographer Deborah Turbeville, who had just died of lung cancer in 2013. Lagerfeld removed Talley from the Chanel shows’ guest list and banished him from his circle.
I got up close and personal since my daughter Channing, as a fashion journalist, covered the February 15, 2023, auction at Christie’s in N.Y.C.
The A.L.T. collection of André Leon Talley was my first time registering to bid on an item at Christie’s. Count me in the 3,119 registered bidders. The Black Patent Leather Bamboo Top handle Gucci bag with an estimate to sell for an affordable $400 – 600 got my attention. The price realized a whopping $2772.
Now about André Leon Talley:
♣️ Born on October 16, 1948, in Washington, D, C. raised by his grandmother, Bennie Frances Roberson Davis (1898-1989), in Durham, North Carolina, who showed him southern culture, discipline, and charm
▪️ André discovered Vogue magazine at the age of nine or ten
♦ Undergraduate degree: North Carolina Central University in French Literature
♣ Master’s degree from Ivy League Brown University in French Literature
André Leon Talley’s pioneering presence in fashion:
👘 1974: Diana Vreeland’s unpaid assistant at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the same year, Diana
introduces ☎️ André to Andy Warhol for a receptionist/gofer position at Andy’s Interview magazine
📰 1977: Mr. Talley works as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily; now traveling in the upper echelons of fashion when
His reality was the Jim Crow South; he met Karl Lagerfeld, Jacqueline Kennedy, and her younger sister Caroline Lee Radziwill.
💃🏾 1982: Fashion editor at Ebony
During 1983-1988, held the position of first-ever African American male creative director and then editor-at-large at Vogue
🧳 1995 moves to Paris with 13 bags of old luggage, becoming a fashion editor at W Magazine
🍎 He returns to N.Y.C. three years later and continues his collaboration with Vogue, getting his column called Life With André
📖 2003 A.L.T.: A Memoir published
📔 In 2005, published A.L.T. 365+
2009 Documentary, The 2007 September Issue
2009 – 2013 Stylist to former First Lady, Michelle Obama
2010 – 2011 Judge: American’s Next Top Model
Andre Leon Talley stayed with Vogue as the editor until his departure in 2013 to pursue another editorial position in the Russian edition of Numéro magazine.
2016 Documentary, The First Monday in May
2017 Documentary, Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards
2017 Documentary, The Gospel According to André
2019 Documentary, The Capote Tapes
📚 2020, third and final publication, a New York Times bestseller, The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir
“I came to Paris with 13 odd pieces of luggage. By the time I left, I had 34 matched sets.” Talley amassed more than 50 pieces of Vuitton hand luggage.
Talley pursued a refined glamorous life speaking French, traveling the world with the sophisticated circles by private jets, yachts, and chauffeurs—Vacationing in Monte Carlo for entire summers, weeks in Biarritz, and trips to Tokyo compliments of Karl Lagerfeld.
After 50 years in the fashion industry, by 2019, the era ended for Talley’s enduring friendships/mentorships, long-gone Vogue, no more front-row seats at fashion shows, and his name left off Karl Lagerfeld’s memorial service guest list. Nevertheless, his Christie’s estate auction was a grand send-off escaping the chiffon trenches.
Alexis E. Thomas, executor of Talley’s estate overlooking the last item up for bid at Christie’s on February 15. Thomas met the editor while fundraising at the Abyssian Baptist Church in the early 2000s. Alexis decided what items from Talley’s White Plains and Durham homes went to auction.
A noted champion for the diversity of Black talent in magazines, highlighting designers and models on the runway. André Leon Talley died in White Plains, New York, on January 19, 2022, at 73, of a heart attack after COVID-19 complications.
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