The Man Who Taught Me How to Dress: André Leon Tally
“The past is always present.” André Leon Talley
For the first time in its history, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will feature an exhibit exclusive to Black men's fashion. This year’s Met Gala theme Superfine: Tailoring Black Style was inspired by Columbia Professor Monica L. Miller’s book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. Honoring Miller’s work in defining the history of Black Dandyism while acknowledging its political, social, and queer roots was, in the eyes of exhibit curator Andrew Bolton, the costume institute’s first strides into incorporating diversity in fashion history: a subject infamously overlooked by Vogue itself.
On the first Monday of every May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan’s Upper East Side hosts its annual Met Gala, a beacon for the fashion industry and beyond. Designers jump at the opportunity to dress the luminary attendees, who must first be hand-selected by Condé Nast empress and powerhouse, Anna Wintour. The fashion monarch, though long-reigning, is no foreigner to headlines calling for a more diverse Vogue. 1974 was the first year a black cover model was featured in the magazine. Since then, they have become known for their “token” black models, and staff members, or rather, member. Like many modern institutions, Vogue has come to develop a culture and community rich in passion, knowledge, and acceptance. A community in search of accountability for the magazine’s racist past.
Being from the Metropolitan area, I take pride in my style and my ability to dress. This, however, wasn’t something fed to me on some proverbial metropolitan spoon. I was brought up in a blended family, and it was my sister’s father who taught me the world of men's fashion. Despite our lack of blood relation, I’ve always referred to him as my Uncle Rocco. From his red argyle socks to his Hermes pocket squares, everything of my uncle’s was curated to perfection. Often, while being out with him, we would run into his equally well-dressed friends. I have a fond memory of being at Nordstrom with my Uncle; I couldn’t have been older than 8. We were in the men’s shoe department when a man in a grey pleated suit accented with a pink tie came to greet us. His white and pink stitched pocket square caught my eye as they reminisced about their old friendship. My Uncle looked at me, pointed to his friend, and said, “Nobody knows how to dress better than a Black man.” This statement, I would come to learn as the utmost truth.
Within the fashion cosmos—and more specifically within the history of Black fashion—there is no voice more prominent than that of the late André Leon Talley. Similar to my Uncle, Talley’s stylistic sense of ease was prevalent in the most subtle ways. The fashion mogul served as the creative director of American Vogue from 1988 to 1995, in the early stages of Anna Wintour’s editorship. Before Vogue, Talley worked as an editor for WWD as their Paris Bureau Chief and also had roles at Interview and W magazines. With a career in fashion spanning over five decades, it is only within Talley’s memoir The Chifon Trenches that he depicts for us what it was like for a young African American man to break into the all-white world of fashion in the 1970s. Despite these difficulties, the magnetism of Talley’s persona made him a cult classic amongst those in fashion’s inner circle. In Anna Wintour’s memorial to André, she wrote, “Friendship with him meant being part of his erudite, gilded, and fiercely self-created existence; of being in the orbit of someone who had the incredible gift, one amplified by his immense charm, of always being able to joyfully turn the volume of life up—way, way up.” After leaving Vogue in 2013, the sometimes tumultuous friendship of Talley and Wintour continued, and in 2020 when Wintour was facing scrutiny for allegedly creating a racist work environment, Talley was among many to publicly speak out against Wintour, assuring that despite her best efforts she is systematically part of, “environment of colonialism” that results in entitlement and white privilege. It is within the bare bones of this quote that we see historical roots that gave leeway to the creation of the term Black Dandy.
Black Dandy is a style that combines both European menswear and culturally African aesthetics to challenge limited societal views on men of color. In the early 20th century, however, the term was used as a way to degrade the respectably meticulous and occasionally flamboyant style of African American men of this time. But the once critical reference to the Black man’s flamboyant ways of dressing has evolved into a term of power—one for Black men to no longer be referred to as but to refer to themselves as.
Today, we see modern-day examples of Black Dandyism through the work of creatives such as Louis Vuitton Creative Director Pharrell Williams, the late Virgil Abdol, and in the portraits of the well-dressed men of the Harlem Renaissance. Without the knowledge of fashion’s past, it may be easy to assume this industry is ‘tailored’ for Black men to thrive in. But the fashion community of the new generation is welcoming and appreciates the genius of the Black Dandies whose lives, like André Leon Talley’s, are the embodiment of their careers.
This empowerment is what the Costume Institute and Vogue hope to capture within the displays and theme of this year's Met Gala. Anna Wintour has stated, “Undoubtedly, I have made mistakes along the way … and if any mistakes were made at Vogue under my watch, they are mine to own and remedy and I am committed to doing the work.” Although there is no way to correct the mistakes of the past, Vogue is showing their overdue efforts to move forward in a way that is with the times, and not against them.
I look forward to and am hopeful for the change this year's Gala will bring. While you dress today, may you put a pink pocket square in your pleated suit jacket or a chiffon cape over your little black dress. André Leon Talley and my Uncle Rocco would be well pleased with either.