André Leon Talley Offers Up Amazing Fashion Advice

Photo: WENN

When you’ve spent your career alongside fashion legends like Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour, you can afford to dispense your own brand of professional advice. The 65-year-old veritable force in the fashion industry cemented himself as a proven fount of council after appearing on America’s Next Top Model, but apart from the serious knowledge he’s dropped then, he’s expounded his style to also incorporate the Savannah College of Art and Design.

In a chat with Eliza Brooke of Fashionista, the man whose first job was as an assistant for Andy Warhol for $50 a week shared his thoughts on what design students and young people starting out in the industry needed to know. “You have to do your homework,” the North Carolina Central University graduate said. “In life, homework is important. That’s the advice I give to students. Homework could be reading or learning how to do that stitch. You can also do that on your own if you simply go to the library. It’s not necessarily about being on the computer and Googling it. That’s not enough. You have to explore it.”

Exploration was the ground root of André Leon Talley‘s storied career. As the son of Alma Ruth Davis and William C. Talley, his parents left him with his grandmother, Bennie Davis, and with his understanding of luxury would go on to hone his craft and eventually become the editor-at-large for Vogue magazine. One of Out Magazine‘s “50 Most Powerful Gay Men in America,” Talley elaborated on his aversion to the web based learning crowd by saying, “I think people have it so easy because they think they can Google. Every time that you’re in a dinner [with a young person] and you say something he doesn’t know, he Googles instantly to inform himself, to be part of the dinner conversation. I don’t think that’s necessary. I think that you listen and then you go back to research.”

Talley, whose work with designers Tracy Resse, Rachel Roy, and Jason Wu have influenced stars (Venus Williams) to politicians (Michelle Obama), is no stranger to hard work and education. The southern bred fashion talent holds an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Savannah College of Art and Design, where he also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees, so he knows a thing or three about what he’s talking about. Stressing how important it is for someone new on the scene to listen, Talley’s talk proved to be important to those looking to develop their own career.

“When I got a job with Andy Warhol where I was making $50 a week, I was happy to do that because I was in the world where I knew I would learn,” he said. “Young people don’t know how to listen. You take it in and digest it… You have to respect your mentors and keep your nose to the grindstone and keep exploring your vision and your dreams.” Although André Leon Talley’s criticism appears squarely aimed at the Millienial generation, it is refreshing to see someone of his stature pushing the next generation of creators to realize that they can do great things.

While students might have easy access to a world of fashion simply through the usage of Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media streams — André Leon Talley is encouraging those to immerse themselves truly into the work — work that should be taken seriously.

On the following pages, we look at the excitingly unique style that André Leon Talley has showcased over the years!

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