A New André Leon Talley Exhibition Shows the Intimate Side of the Fashion Titan

Few figures in fashion loomed as large—intellectually, culturally, and stylistically—as André Leon Talley. The first Black creative director of American Vogue possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history and an eye for beauty that influenced generations of designers, editors, and tastemakers—among them Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, and even his mentor Diana Vreeland. A fixture of the industry’s most influential circles, he worked at Andy Warhol’s Factory, danced at Studio 54 with the likes of Pat Cleveland, Tom Ford, and Diane von Furstenberg, and later helped shape Women’s Wear Daily as its Paris bureau chief before landing at Vogue and becoming Wintour’s right hand. Talley’s singular vision and voice—equal parts erudition and exuberance—transformed fashion into a form of cultural storytelling, one he championed until his passing in 2022 at the age of 73.

Now, his legacy takes physical form in André Leon Talley: Style Is Forever, an exhibition at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s SCAD FASH campus in Atlanta, Georgia that showcases nearly 70 of his personal garments and mementos—from couture treasures to everyday staples. Curated by creative director of SCAD FASH museums, Rafael Brauer Gomes, and founder of Black Fashion Fair Antoine Gregory, the show opened October 15 with a gala attended by Law Roach, Luar’s Raúl López, and Pharrell Williams, who received the University’s André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. The exhibition will travel all over the world, to SCAD’s other campuses in Savannah, Georgia, and Lacoste, France, and is accompanied by a Rizzoli book and documentary film (the latter is executive produced by Colman Domingo, Raúl Domingo, and SCAD president and founder Paula Wallace).

Talley, a native of Durham, North Carolina, had a major presence at SCAD, where he was first invited to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 (it was later renamed in his honor). He spent years bringing fashion’s biggest names—such as Marc Jacobs, Miuccia Prada, Karl Lagerfeld, and John Galliano—to the school, where he served as a mentor and advisor to students. In fact, Gomes was working with Talley on a SCAD exhibition honoring the fashion editor’s legacy and his collaborations with designers—but after Talley died unexpectedly, Gomes rerouted the theme of the show. He visited Talley’s former home in White Plains, N.Y. to handle the estate and archive in 2022, and was met with a mountain of goods that spoke to Talley’s incredible life.

“The house was closed for at least six months, and needed to be vacated quickly due to high humidity; we had a week,” Gomes recalls of the process. “Pieces needed to be sold to pay for debts. I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ There was so much art, so many books, photography everywhere, leopard carpet up the stairs. Shoes, bags, shirts, boxes and boxes of ties. There were guest rooms and even china cabinets filled with clothes.”

Many of those items made it into the exhibition, which breathes with the pure life of André due to the mannequins that look exactly like him, plus his voice floating over the gallery speakers (“Believe in yourself, keep the dream alive, and work hard,” he says at one point). There are couture and bespoke pieces from his personal wardrobe, each with a special anecdote behind it: the silver, laser-cut Fendi coat he wore to Karl Lagerfeld’s Halloween party; rhinestone Roger Vivier flats in a size men’s 14; a slew of sharp suiting and dreamy caftans. There are even framed white shirts designed especially by Lagerfeld for Talley, with special flourishes like elongated collars and darts in the cuffs.

“Do you know who you have to be for Karl Lagerfeld to make you a Chanel menswear piece with hand-painted buttons?” asks Gregory, the cocurator. “André came from the South, Jim Crow era, and he rose to the top of fashion.” Gregory also points to Talley’s NAACP shirts and “The New American Dream” jacket he donned at the CFDA Awards in the 2000s. “He wore his Blackness with such pride. Even when he paired it with a Ralph Rucci cafan or a Dapper Dan piece, you can see how much he wanted for his people to succeed.”

Aside from the incredible fashion, visitors will find a wealth of home goods, pictures, and everyday ephemera that speak to Talley, the man behind the myth. There are place cards he saved from lavish dinner parties by stuffing them into his jacket pockets; notes and personal letters; his handwritten edits on photos from editorial shoots; monogrammed plates. Inside the space, a playlist of Talley’s favorite songs can be heard overheard. “He hasn’t been gone for very long,” Gregory said of Talley. “This is someone who had an amazing life, someone we care deeply about.”

“We wanted to pay homage to André, and have it feel very personal,” Gomes added. “The first time we tested the show, I got goosebumps. It felt like his spirit was in the gallery.”