The former editor-at-large of Vogue paints a scathing portrait of his once close friend and boss Anna Wintour, saying she is ‘not capable of human kindness’, in his upcoming memoir obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
André Leon Talley says he has ‘huge emotional and psychological scars’ from his decades long friendship with the magazine’s notoriously icy editor.
The 70-year-old describes being frozen out by Wintour last year because he was ‘too old, too overweight, too uncool’ for her, he writes in his new memoir The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir, which is out in September.
Talley claims there is an ‘endless’ list of writers, stylists and models who she has cast onto a ‘frayed and tattered heap during her powerful rule’.
In a scorching passage Talley, 70, writes: ‘She is immune to anyone other than the powerful and famous people who populate the pages of Vogue.
‘She has mercilessly made her best friends people who are the highest in their chosen fields.
‘Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Mr. and Mrs. George Clooney are, to her, friends. I am no longer of value to her’.
Andre Leon Talley, the former editor-at-large of Vogue, has revealed his friendship with Anna Wintour is over. The 70-year-old describes being frozen out by Wintour last year because he was ‘too old, too overweight, too uncool’ for her. Pictured: A frosty looking Talley with Wintour at Serena Williams’ fashion show in February
Talley’s dismissal from the court of the woman known as ‘Nuclear Wintour’ is all the more bitter because they were so close – and she made his career. That was in 1983 when Talley got to work at the magazine at his second attempt after Grace Mirabella, the editor-in-chief at the time, made him fashion news editor. Pictured: The former friends at the Met gala in 1999
In an extended rant, Talley writes: ‘Today, I would love for her to say something human and sincere to me. I have huge emotional and psychological scars from my relationship with this towering and influential woman’
Talley’s dismissal from the court of the woman known as ‘Nuclear Wintour’ is all the more bitter because they were so close – and she made his career.
When they were at their closest he was one of the few dozen people invited to her wedding and she staged an intervention because his weight got out of control.
Talley writes that when he started out in fashion journalism and Wintour was creative director at Vogue she became a ‘powerful ally’ of his.
That was in 1983 when Talley got to work at the magazine at his second attempt after Grace Mirabella, the editor-in-chief at the time, made him fashion news editor.
Talley writes that on the way out he ran into Wintour and she smiled at him.
The 70-year-old describes being frozen out by Wintour last year because he was ‘too old, too overweight, too uncool’ for her, he writes in his new memoir The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir, which is out in September
By the time he got home she had sent a note to his apartment saying: ‘Welcome to Vogue. I look forward to working with you’.
Talley admits to being ‘terribly terrified’ of Wintour, not least because he ran into her at the same parties all the time.
Andy Warhol, a friend of Talley’s from his days at Interview magazine, knew he was intimidated by her and he would poke him in the ribs and say: ‘Oh Andre, go and say hello to Anna Wintour!’
When Wintour left the U.S to become editor of British Vogue, Talley became style editor of Vanity Fair under Tina Brown.
Wintour hired him back when she returned to America as editor of Home & Garden magazine and brought him with her to Vogue when she became its editor in 1988.
Wintour gave Talley her old job of creative director which made him the highest ranking black man in the history of fashion journalism and the most important male fashion writer.
By that point he was already fast friends with designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, who would become a close friend until they fell out as well.
But his new job gave him an unprecedented level of prestige and respect at a time when Vogue was even more powerful than it is today.
He met royalty, did photo shoots in the homes of the rich and famous and counted Lee Radizwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy, among his new acquaintances.
Andy Warhol, a friend of Talley’s from his days at Interview magazine, knew he was intimidated by her and he would poke him in the ribs and say: ‘Oh Andre, go and say hello to Anna Wintour!’ Pictured: Talley with Warhol in 1981
Wintour gave Talley her old job of creative director which made him the highest ranking black man in the history of fashion journalism and the most important male fashion writer. By that point he was already fast friends with designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, who would become a lifelong friend until they fell out as well. Pictured: Talley with Lagerfeld and Tommy Hilfiger
Talley writes that there was no transition period when Wintour took over, just ‘bullet speed and lightning bolts ahead’.
Meetings were over in eight minutes and if they went on longer than 15 minutes something had gone ‘seriously wrong’.
The first time he tried to have lunch with Wintour she announced ‘let’s go back to the office’ before the first course had arrived.
Talley speculates that the chefs probably didn’t even bother to put the food on when she arrived because they were so used to this.
Talley disputes some of the things that featured in The Devil Wears Prada, the 2006 film ostensibly about Wintour that starred Meryl Streep.
He says that in reality nobody threw their coats around and there was ‘no vulgar language’ – and you certainly didn’t walk around drunk.
But there were expense accounts for everything and every single thing Wintour wore was sent to the dry cleaners, apart from her underwear.
Her kitchen was spotless – because she never cooked.
One of her two assistants did have to go to her home every morning with a copy of the big book, a mockup of the current issue of Vogue, with flowers, gifts and all her clean clothes.
Under Wintour’s patronage Talley got big assignments like Madonna’s first Vogue cover, shot in 1989 at her home in Los Angeles.
When Wintour left the US to become editor of British Vogue, Talley became style editor of Vanity Fair under Tina Brown. Wintour hired him back when she returned to America as editor of Home & Garden magazine and brought him with her to Vogue when she became its editor in 1988. Pictured: Talley and Wintour in 1996
Under Wintour’s patronage Talley got big assignments like Madonna’s first Vogue cover, shot in 1989 at her home in Los Angeles (pictured)
Talley claims that Madonna introduced herself by saying: ‘Hi, I’m Madonna, you want a blow job?’ Talley declined and said he was ‘flattered’.
But at some point things changed and Wintour stopped sending him the best assignments.
Talley began to feel he ‘wasn’t being treated properly’ so he stormed into Wintour’s office and quit, slamming the door on the way out.
He moved back home to North Carolina into the house he’d bought for his grandmother and finally grieved her death five years after the event by binge eating barbecue.
Talley made up with Wintour when her own mother died and he flew to the UK to be at the funeral where she broke down in tears during the eulogy.
Talley got up and ‘cradled her in my arms’ as they walked out – it was the only time he physically held her.
Talley returned to Vogue as editor-at-large where his weight carried on ballooning and one day Wintour called him and said: ‘You’ve got to go to the gym’.
He got a personal trainer and tried the cabbage diet – where you just eat cooked cabbage -but it didn’t work.
So Wintour staged an intervention with Talley’s pastor and designer Oscar de la Renta and his wife, who were two of Talley’s closest friends.
Wintour explained that Talley’s weight was ‘out of control’ and he was sent for rehab at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina.
But at some point things changed and Wintour stopped sending him the best assignments. Talley began to feel he ‘wasn’t being treated properly’ so he stormed into Wintour’s office and quit, slamming the door on the way out
Talley lost 55lbs but he put it back on and he returned to the center three times for a ‘yo-yo battle I long ago realized I will never win’.
In 2016 Vogue started a podcast and Wintour announced that Talley was the host. It began as a huge success with guests like Tom Ford, Kim Kardashian, Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang.
But it was around this time things began to go sour for Talley’s friendship with Wintour.
He gripes about being paid just $500 for each episode of the podcast, a sum which he calls ‘peanuts’.
‘My car service bills cost that much and more for a round-trip from White Plains to One World Trade Center’, where the Vogue office is based,’ he writes.
One day she treats me like a good friend and a colleague, and the next day, she treats me as if she had just handed over her keys to an unknown parking valet.
Suddenly the podcast ceased to exist and there was no explanation from Wintour who adopted a ‘sphinx-like silence’.
Talley writes that Wintour had ‘decimated me with this silent treatment so many times’ and ‘this is just the way she resolves any issue’.
Talley spoke with Graydon Carter, the former editor of Vanity Fair, and discovered he wasn’t alone.
Carter supposedly said of Wintour: ‘One day she treats me like a good friend and a colleague, and the next day, she treats me as if she had just handed over her keys to an unknown parking valet.’
In an extended rant, Talley writes: ‘Today, I would love for her to say something human and sincere to me. I have huge emotional and psychological scars from my relationship with this towering and influential woman…
‘…she loves her two children and I am sure she will be the best grandmother…but there are so many people who have worked for her and have suffered huge emotional scarring….the list is endless. She has dashed so many on a frayed and tattered heap during her powerful rule’.
Talley spoke with Graydon Carter (pictured), the former editor of Vanity Fair, and discovered he wasn’t alone. Carter supposedly said of Wintour: ‘One day she treats me like a good friend and a colleague, and the next day, she treats me as if she had just handed over her keys to an unknown parking valet’
He writes: ‘This was clearly a stone-cold business decision. I had suddenly become too old, too overweight, too uncool, I imagined, for Anna Wintour. ‘After decades of loyalty and friendships…Anna should have had the decency and kindness to call me or send me an email saying: ‘Andre, I think we have had a wonderful run with your interviews but we are going to try something new’
In the Spring of 2018 Talley was expecting to prepare for his red carpet interviews for the Met Gala but nobody from Vogue had contacted him.
When Talley called he was told such things were ‘beneath’ him but he saw it for what it was – a not so subtle signal to leave.
He writes: ‘This was clearly a stone-cold business decision. I had suddenly become too old, too overweight, too uncool, I imagined, for Anna Wintour.
‘After decades of loyalty and friendships…Anna should have had the decency and kindness to call me or send me an email saying: ‘Andre, I think we have had a wonderful run with your interviews but we are going to try something new’.
‘I would have accepted that…I understand; nothing lasts forever. Simple human kindness. No, she is not capable’.
Talley, who is clearly still wounded, writes that ‘for years Anna was the most important woman in my universe’ but now she had let him be ‘thrown to the curb’.
I wonder, when she goes home alone at night, is she miserable? Does she feel alone? My hope is that she will find a way to apologize before I die.
That October, Wintour did not wish Talley a happy birthday as she normally did and he considered their friendship ‘officially over’.
The next month he sent her a birthday email – she did not respond.
Talley writes: ‘I wonder, when she goes home alone at night, is she miserable? Does she feel alone?
‘Anna is so powerful and busy; she simply put me out of her existence. Now she treats me as a former employee, brief greetings, never anything more than perfunctory salutations’.
Talley called Wintour ‘ruthless’ and writes that ‘the Empress Wintour has disappointed me in her humanity’.
With a dramatic flair, he writes: ‘My hope is that she will find a way to apologize before I die, or if I linger on incapacitated before I pass, she will show up at my bedside, with an extended hand clasped into mine and say: ‘I love you. You have no idea how much you have meant to me’. Not a day goes by when I do not think of Anna Wintour’.
In the Spring of 2018 Talley was expecting to prepare for his red carpet interviews for the Met Gala but nobody from Vogue had contacted him. Talley has nothing but scorn for his replacement as the Vogue red carpet interviewer at the Met Gala last year, which appears to refer to YouTube star Liza Koshy (pictured). With bitterness he writes: ‘What could this talented YouTuber offer?’
Talley says that moving Vogue to One World Trade Center was the ‘beginning of the end’ for the old guard like him. Grace Coddington (pictured), one of the magazine’s longest serving editors used to stay at the Ritz and was given a chauffeured town car. Now she has to ‘queue in long lines at airport taxi stands in Europe’, Talley writes, adding: ‘It seems so hardscrabble and undignified’
Talley has nothing but scorn for his replacement as the Vogue red carpet interviewer at the Met Gala last year, which appears to refer to YouTube star Liza Koshy, 24.
With bitterness he writes: ‘What could this talented YouTuber offer?
‘Surely she didn’t know what a martingale back is to a Balenciagia one-seamed coat? Or did she know that Katie Holmes’ Zac Posen dress, worn with great elegance, constructed with great technique, was a homage to the master architect Charles James?
‘Like an extinct dodo bird. my brain, rich and replete with knowledge, has been relegated to the history books’.
Talley says that moving Vogue to One World Trade Center was the ‘beginning of the end’ for the old guard like him.
Grace Coddington, one of the magazine’s longest serving editors used to stay at the Ritz and was given a chauffeured town car.
Now she has to ‘queue in long lines at airport taxi stands in Europe’, Talley writes, adding: ‘It seems so hardscrabble and undignified’.
Polly Mellen, who had been at Vogue for 30 years, was given a retirement party in Barneys’ basement, which appalled him.
Talley calls this ‘ageism at its worst’ and says that ‘we are the dinosaurs of Vogue, an endangered species’.
He says that the magazine’s publishers Conde Nast is ‘special in its ability to spit people out….you are dismissed without ceremony, like in the court of the Sun King…it is not a place of great empathy for humanity.’