“I just need green. I need to wake up and see grass and squirrels. I don’t want to see skyscrapers.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“People need to be edited; life needs to be edited. I need to be edited.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“When I was a young boy, growing up in Durham, North Carolina, the women in my family were truly passionate about their clothes; nothing was more beautiful to me than women dressing with the utmost, meticulous attention to accessories, shoes, handbags, hats, coats, dresses and gloves to attend Sunday church services.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“The most luxurious item is a beautiful bed and beautiful, simple sheets.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I do believe there’s a heaven. I do believe that God has given me the resilience and the survival skills to withstand the chiffon trenches.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I don’t tear down. I prefer to build up.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Stella McCartney, not only is she a designer, she is a mother of four, and she lives for practicality. She understands what a woman needs to wear to work and what a woman needs to wear when it’s time to go out and put on the Ritz!”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I know what it is like to be brought up with unconditional love. In my life that came from my grandmother.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“The little black dress expresses a moment of freedom and individuality every time.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“The late Estee Lauder says you can never wear white shoes after Labor Day. But of course, in today’s world, that does not exist.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I’d like to be remembered as someone who made a difference in the lives of young people – that I nurtured someone and taught them to pursue their dreams and their careers, to leave a legacy.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I only take risks in couture, but I don’t take risks in athleticism.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Wearing clothes should be a personal narrative of emotion. I always respond to fashion in an emotional way.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I have always admired stylishly confident women who dress with great authority. This lifelong love of elegance began with the humble wardrobe of my late grandmother Mrs. Bennie Frances Davis.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez was a major part of my early career.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“The zenith of elegance in any woman’s wardrobe is the little black dress, the power of which suggests dash and refinement.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“If you’re going to be a model, what’s going to get you the job on a go-see and makes you stand out, it might not be your lipstick or your portfolio or what you’re wearing, it might come from your core being.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Look at ‘American Idol,’ which I don’t look at. Those winners haven’t become household names except for Jennifer Hudson, and she was a reject. You can’t aim to be a household name. You just have to be successful.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“There are no more Elizabeth Taylors. You could be fascinated by her, she lived so many lives, she lived far, she loved the jewels; she had gaudy taste but she had extraordinary talent.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Mrs. Obama has a hug – a sincere and friendly embrace – that has become familiar to countless supporters from coast to coast. And when she talks to you, she focuses all her calm attention on your face.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Like Hillary Clinton before her, Mrs. Obama has always been a working woman. She is a lawyer turned hospital administrator turned political right hand. It is a unique resume.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I went to Brown to be a French professor, and I didn’t know what I was doing except that I loved French. When I got to Paris and I could speak French, I know how much it helped me to establish relationships with Karl Lagerfeld, with the late Yves St. Laurent. French, it just helps you if you’re in fashion. The French people started style.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Reality TV, although I’m a part of it, I think reality TV is a terrible thing.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I personally go to the airport looking like a homeless person, because I think people will leave me alone. But I dress myself with my luggage – all my luggage matches.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“When I have interns, I always say, ‘Handwritten thank-you notes can make a difference.’ People remember that – not an e-mail, a handwritten note in an envelope.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Uggs can be as chic as heels for women.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Uggs are comfort shoes, and it’s important to have a shoe that gives you a sense of comfort. I have about 15 pair of Uggs – the same shoe, the same color. And I also have the bedroom slippers.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“You can never have too many black pumps. Never!”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I’m usually at home and in bed by 10 o’clock. I do not want to be out at anybody’s New Year’s Eve party.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“At an early age I discovered the beauty in pictures in ‘Vogue’ magazine and Ebony magazine, and I would read ‘The New York Times.’ I had to make my own world within my world because I was an only child.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I love people – it is not the fashion, it is the people in fashion I love.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“What’s that show? ‘TMZ’? They stand there and say, ‘I’ve got this on this person.’ The focus on celebrities can be detrimental because people could be thinking of other things, but it’s a part of the culture and it’s what sells.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I will sit in the car on the way to a meeting and just smile. I really mean that. It helps you get through life. If you have nothing to say, smile. Look up at the sky and smile. Just be grateful.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“You cannot live your life in the elitist world of fashion and not step out or you’re disconnected. You have to realize that fashion is not the endgame.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I like the idea of being warm and secure. That’s what home should be. That you have a sense of warmth, security, love, and you love the things around you and surround yourself with beauty.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I only watch MSNBC for the news.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I’m not going to go to the local theater to spend $12… when I can get a screening copy of a film. I don’t get screeners myself, but I can borrow from my friends or go to their house to watch.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Why spend money on movies when you can spend it on gas? Or dry cleaning? Or groceries?”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I love sitting through long things. I mean, ‘Gone With the Wind’ I will sit through; I love sitting somewhere for four hours, for anything. I love being on a train. I love sitting down for four hours. I think it’s the most wonderful thing to be able to sit somewhere and concentrate on something for more than two hours.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Waiting in line for something mundane is very boring. Waiting for my doctor to see me and waiting for my dentist to see me, yes, that is boring.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I suppose the most daring thing I’ve ever done is try to water ski. And that was not successful.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Valentino made my day suit for the wedding of Paloma Picasso in Paris.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Money isn’t everything, but it is when you start thinking about putting money away for your retirement days.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“’Drekitude’ is the lowest point in the lowest ebb. It could be your look. It could be your shoes. It could be that you’re standing wrong. ‘Drek’ is a total, total, total hot mess.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“In my day you didn’t speak until spoken to.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I watch Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews. That’s what I watch every night. By the time I’ve watched them, I don’t have time to watch reality TV shows.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I think it’s important that models be healthy.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Beauty is health. Health is beauty.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“The happiest moments of my childhood were spent on my grandmother’s front porch in Durham, N.C., or at her sister’s farmhouse in Orange County, where chickens paraded outside the kitchen’s screen door and hams were cured in the smokehouse.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“When I do entertain, in the summer, which is rare, I receive my guests on the front porch, set up wicker trays found at Pottery Barn, and serve iced beverages. Anytime I do welcome friends, it’s always a tray of canapes or Planters peanuts, jellied candy from Paris, and a good bottle of Sancerre.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“When my best friends doubt their little black dresses, they call me on the telephone seeking reassurance.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I think people look great in black. I love that what stands out is the person, especially. Black just conveys a kind of drama, even if it can be quiet drama. It does lend to the wearer a sense of confidence.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“One my favorite things is to go to the provinces of Russia and see the 18th century wood churches with the onion dome architecture. These humble wonders of incredible imagination of architects that were obviously not living in places like Paris or London, but they’ve created these amazing churches.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I love Russian culture. I don’t know the young Russia, I’m not at all familiar with young Russia, but the old school Russia is good enough for me for the moment.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“I always feel comfortable, basically in any situation except perhaps airports.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“It’s incorrect to assume you can be a fashion editor because you blog, if you don’t have experience to look at fashion in a professional way.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“In the heyday of the Oscars, there were electric sparks flying. When Cher went in her fabulous Bob Mackie dress and her Mohawk, and Bjoerk with her swan dress. Then we thought it was bad taste; now I think it should have been the best dress because she stood out.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“Snooki and Honey Boo Boo. These are big celebrities in the U.S. You want to throw up.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“On 9/11, that morning, I was in a Christian Dior Couture appointment at the Hotel Pierre.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“There is room in today’s world for men to wear dresses.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“It’s always great to have things from France at a wedding. It’s symbolic of style, of culture, of taste.”
― Andre Leon Talley
“People love fashion exhibits because they can fantasize. They can respond to a dress even if they can never wear a dress like that.”
― Andre Leon Talley
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