While speaking last night at BAM, the always-voluble André Leon Talley didn’t hold back on discussing politics and diversity in the fashion industry. As reported by WWD, he told interviewer Tamron Hall that he worked quietly to push for diversity in the pages of Vogue. “I worked behind the scenes,” he said. “I did it in dulcet tones, and I was persistent and tenacious … I always assumed a very quiet role. I didn’t scream and yell and shout … That was the best strategy, because that was the world I moved in. After all, it was Vogue, darling.”
He added that “Grace Coddington used to come and say, ‘What do you think of my pictures?’ Sometimes she would ask, ‘Do you think this will fly with your people?’” Talley said he was thrilled about the appointment of Edward Enninful as the editor-in-chief of British Vogue, calling it “a beautiful moment for people of color.”
Talley hasn’t shied away from expressing qualified admiration for Melania Trump, and last night he called her “the best thing about the Trump administration,” adding, “She’s like a ‘Mona Lisa’ sphinx. She doesn’t tell you who she is, but she expresses herself through her clothes.” He had less warm words for Kellyanne Conway and her inauguration outfit. “I think she was dressed like a Nutcracker,” he said. “I think she went downstairs to Gucci in the Trump Tower and bought that off the rack and then went home to New Jersey. That was a drive-by purchase.”