Award-winning authors Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, who teamed up for the terrific 2022 biography of Bayard Rustin, A Song for the Unsung, have partnered again to great effect on this biography of fashion editor and icon André Leon Talley.
Despite the book’s title, and Talley’s assertion that “My life is a fairy tale,” it did not begin that way, we learn as the book opens. When he was born, “The color line in Durham, North Carolina, was as clear-cut as the sharp pleats on a pair of men’s trousers.” He was raised by his grandmother, who made “biscuits that rose like hope and tasted like love,” but as an only child, found companionship with magazines and television, entranced by the glamorous images he saw there.
He found love with his church and family, but was the target of racism and racist violence. And he “endured unwanted touches from grown-ups who swore him to silence.” These “painful secrets” changed him in ways he wouldn’t understand for years, we read.
Fashion became his escape. After studying French in college and graduate school, he landed in Paris as a fashion editor and worked his way up to become editor-at-large for Vogue.
The book follows his flourishing career but doesn’t hesitate to show us that he also endured homophobia and racism. Nevertheless, we see, he continued to break boundaries, calling for greater inclusion of people of color in the fashion industry, and developing his own signature style of Moroccan-inspired capes and kaftans. He even styled First Lady Michelle Obama. Swaggering and visionary, he still never forgot his roots and the people who helped him live his fairy tale.
It’s a bold biography for a bold man, with bright illustrations by Lamont O’Neal complementing the evocative text and adding quotes from Talley himself on many pages. Although the book mentions some difficult topics, it may also open up opportunities for important conversations about them between young people and their adults. The highly recommended title should find a welcome place on many bookshelves.
Backmatter consists of a fashion glossary; additional notes about people, magazines, and happenings mentioned in the book; quote citations, a bibliography; and a Note from the Authors that includes information about the National Child Abuse Hotline and The Trevor Project.
Content warning: Mention of what adult readers (and perhaps some younger ones) will understand as sexual abuse.
