Andre Leon Talley
Anna Wintour (Editor of Vogue) & Andre Leon Talley
I finished this book today: A.L.T. a memoir
A.L.T. is written by Andre Leon Talley. Andre is currently a fashion editor for Vogue and writes the StyleFax column (personally, I haven’t read this yet… I am going to subscribe to Vogue soon…) Andre writes about how his grandmother, his upbringing, and Diana Vreeland shaped his life in terms of spirituality, luxury, and faith. One of my reasons for reading his biography is that Andre received a masters in French from Brown during the 1970′s. I was curious how Andre went from the Brown University world to the fashion world.
You see, Andre originally wanted to be a Professor, he viewed this as the safe path. But, as he went to Brown he was lucky to have very affluent friends students at RISD who inspired him to get out of his shell and to follow his dreams. Andre recounts about growing up in Carolina, about how he walked across town to buy a Vogue. He would cut out pictures paste them on his wall and etc. when he was a young boy. Andre recounts about the delicious food made by his mother, how he met Diana Vreeland.
Overall the book is really good, and Andre seems to open up. I thought the book could have been better organized, but each chapter kind of has a theme and this theme is explored on to a certain time period, then in the second half of the book the themes recur but the time period moves to the 1960′s… then to today.
I see some parallels between Andre’s life and my life. I remember how when I started uni I wanted to be a computer scientist, but really I should probably be an artist and/or designer. Now, I am switching to arts… but I have done two years of computer science so I have a lot of knowledge on programming, complexity, b trees, and etc. Also I have a gained a work ethic that is more meditative (think drawing for four hours nonstop kind of thing.) So… like Andre developed and honed his French skills, I have developed and honed computer skills. I don’t know where this will lead but I think one day it will click…
I have people here (Brown) too that kind of pulled me out of my shell. I haven’t met that many RISD students/professors but I plan to do so this semester. The way Andre met his RISD friends was that he took an Art History class. I am going to take a Drawing class (not just because of Andre, a lot of planning is going into this… there are just so many interesting classes!) I don’t really know what to expect for the workload of an art class.
One of my favorite parts of the book is when the RISD students are pulling Andre out his shell. Andre and his friends would frequently go to New York / Bostonon the weekends and shop (his friends were wealthy one had a car and would drive sometimes or they just rode the bus.) One time Andre finds a cape kind of thing and a marauder’s hat in a store. Of course he brings it back to Brown/RISD area which is known as College Hill in Providence. He says he puts this outfit on and some make up too and how he walked into class like that. I just found it very inspiring and it shows how much backbone he has. He sums his feelings up nicely in the sentence:
I was in place where flamboyance was understood.
I don’t know if it is me or if it is contemporary Brown, but I feel that flamboyance is not understood at Brown. Flamboyance is seen as a way of being an attention grabber? Atleast thats how I see it. Maybe by flamboyance he means chic? Don’t get me started on chic, because I don’t know where to start… but I am starting to understand it.
Just thought I’d share this with you…
ciao, arlando
