The Chiffon Trenches

Boring! I expected a fun read for these long days, not an item by item description of every piece of clothing he wore. He is quite impressed with himself. Yawn.

Reading this book made me feel sorry for ALT. He is obviously very bright and ambitious, and both of those things served him well, for he has had quite an amazing career in the fashion world. In part, this book is him celebrating himself and telling you that.

ALT in some ways understands himself and is happy to tell you about it. This part of the book is genuine. His love of fashion, his sponge-like habit of absorbing all of the details so he is a walking Encyclopedia Brown of fashion history. His deserved pride in his success given he was not to the manor born. If you like fashion, this aspect of the book is wonderful and makes it worth the read.

Otoh, in so many ways it is apparent that ALT does not understand himself at all, and he goes for the easy explanation (this bad thing happened because of racism; this person cut me off because they do it to everyone; this person turned on me because they do it to everyone). And this means that there is an undercurrent of undeserved bitterness that runs throughout the whole book that seems too too much given what he’s talking about is a world and echelon of people most of us could never even get near. A few examples:

1. ALT blames racism on his being pushed out of WWD. The story he tells is that he betrayed Yves Saint Laurent (& by extension Pierre Berg) by praising Givenchy in such a way that it hurt Yves Saint Laurent who up until that point had both helped ALT immensely and didn’t make ALT pay for maintaining a relationship with his arch-rival Karl Lagerfeld. So of course Yves Saint Laurent via Pierre Berg complained to John Fairchild of WWD and ALT needed to resign before he was let go. He didn’t lose his job at WWD because of racism, he lost his job because he betrayed Yves Saint Laurent! ALT didn’t understand the world he was living in because given the incestuous relationship between designers and the fashion media, John Fairchild was forced to either push out ALT or lose all of WWDs access to Yves Saint Laurent, which at that time would have likely ended the publication.

2. ALT thinks he was uniquely subjected to abuse such as racist remarks. He tells a story about a nasty nickname given him by a rival for Karl Lagerfeld’s attention and fair enough, it was an awful thing to say and in his shoes it would have made me hurt, furious, and insecure about my status too. But ALT seemingly doesn’t understand that he was surrounded mostly by women and gay men, all of whom got the same treatment, because that is what people do when they want to take someone down with words, they go for the cheap shot. If there is a place where people would understand, ALT was in that place, but instead he acts as if he was some sort of other they tolerated until they turned their backs on him.

3. ALTs beef with being rejected by Anna Wintour: He did nothing wrong! She does this to everyone! To ALTs credit he didn’t go low about this story, he just explained how it hurt then and now, and he misses his friend. But alongside his “falling out of favor” two other things were occurring. First, ALT’s eating disorder was running his life to the point that he could no longer indulge in fashion, he had to have special coats, capes and muumuus made for him. Anna Wintour tried to help him with that, on the company dime no less, but he doesn’t seem to understand that like with all addicts, at some point you have to stop enabling them and walk away. He doesn’t understand that his own inner turmoil that came out as binge eating and being morbidly obese was not only too hard to be around, but also it made him someone who wasn’t doing right by the very fashion and friends he purports to love. (And dollars to donuts this same dynamic explains the rift with Karl Lagerfeld, too.) Secondly, everyone in media by the early aughts knew the internet was coming for them, it was a time of media disruption that has since become cataclysmic, and it meant media personnel needed to prove their value – ALT admits that more often than not, his photo shoots for Vogue did not run. For whatever reason, his vision wasn’t the editor’s vision and instead of adjusting, he doubled down. No one keeps a job that way whatever industry you are in.

4. His complaint that everything is racism and blacks in America and Europe only get to experience anything after it is filtered through a veil of whiteness (or something like that) seems overwrought given that the entire book is an extravaganza of name dropping about his fabulous friends, and the fabulous dinners, and the fabulous clothes, and the world of money, fashion, money, luxury hotels and on and on and on. At some point you have to think, where is the racism? These people accepted you wholeheartedly. They were kind to you. They helped you. They respected you. Look at the blurbs on the book from the fashion people in support of you. At a minimum, if the people you surrounded yourself with for 50 years were really that awful, then why the affected speech such that if I didn’t know who the author was, I would think I was reading an off-shoot of Dominick Dunne’s The Two Mrs. Grenvilles – as in ALT’s voice in this book is the posh, snobby, NOKD talk that those in the fashion world apparently do adopt. I had always thought that was a trope but apparently no, it’s sadly real. But if the fashion world is racist and you think your friends and colleagues are racists, then why adopt their language of snobbery that is designed to one up each other, and make people feel less than (i.e. their behavior isn’t racist, it’s how they treat everyone).

Clearly I have strong feelings about this book having written such a long review. Hence, it’s a 4 star review even if I’m not sure I’m actually recommending one should read it.

Bravo, bravo! Mr. Talley chronicles his amazing journey through the insular and rarefied world of high fashion as only a true insider could. The journey is filled with the highs and lows of navigating the fashion world and his own personal highs and lows. Mr. Talley does this with great finesses and kindness. He spills the tea but in a well mannered and unique Southern way. It is honest but never vicious or mean spirited. His contribution to the fashion world is unparalleled. He is a living legend. No one in the wold has the incredible knowledge of fashion and fashion history that he possesses. A must read! Bravo!

Came for the tea, and mind you the book serves, but stayed for the heartwarming story of friendship, a black man’s struggle to make his way in a field deemed superficial, loss, regret, and redemption. I closed this story hoping that the remainder of ALT’s life will be filled with the love and true friends he so rightly deserves.

I enjoyed the book because I love and collect clothing and follow the industry. The only issue for me was repetition throughout, which would jolt me out of the story and annoy, and his descriptions of what everyone wore to the last detail which gets tiresome (although I guess that’s his job but it’s a bore after a while…maybe he could have done a tighter pick and chose). He claims he’s not pretentious but no one would put up with what he did if they didn’t have pretension in their bones. I know…I’ve been there. It can be a great ride being in those circles, so I understand. He is very honest and not afraid to show his worst side which takes courage and makes for good story. He generously gave credit where credit was due and also pointed out all the sickness in the industry and it’s big players. It’s an ugly industry as are all industries in talent. I do recommend and you’ll learn a good amount about fashion.

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