André Leon Talley, or A.L.T. as he is sometimes known, is a man whose life has been largely concerned with appearances, of every kind. His new memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, is a story of someone—and in this he is not unusual in the fashion pantheon—who seems to exist primarily in the reflected glory of others, and in particular of Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour. His raison d’être was bestowed by them. And then removed.

In America, if you are black and aim higher than the reach history has set for you, the white gaze will try to leech your spirit of its racial identity. Very often, it will succeed. Such is the case with the fashion fixture and former Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley, whose memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, is at once a summing-up of his decades-long career and a pointed commentary on how whiteness works.

... recounts half a century of excess in almost every non-essential area of life, which is what makes it such a bitchy and enjoyable read, even if I did need a lie-down afterwards.

Talley believes that Wintour has 'dashed' many people 'on a frayed and tattered heap during her powerful rule”' Somehow, though, he never expected to be a victim himself...What’s strange, of course, is that he could ever have imagined he would be any different. For all his plaintiveness, he seems to have not even the dimmest sense that if you spend your life creeping to those who only respond to toadying, the people involved are probably not very sincere, and your relationship with them is probably not very real.

... it is hard to weep for someone who over his career received a benevolent corporate loan — along with gifts of designer clothes, rooms at the Ritz Hotel, designer luggage, fur bedding, first-class flights, and lots and lots of kowtowing — especially at a moment when more than 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits.

The prospective reader has a hell of a job ahead of them when it comes to deciphering where and if what is written is all true, half true, and simply some Cinderella story about a large man of color who has an extraordinarily high opinion of himself and a fount of fashion knowledge. [Talley] is well known for his bloviating, long-winded, pretentious diatribes, so a great deal of focus and knowledge are required to separate what actually was as opposed to what was creatively constructed to enhance one’s position and persona.

... unguarded style.

... a tell-all in which it is difficult to discern who the biggest diva is — the author included.

... the tale of an African-American man’s spectacular rise from the segregationist Jim Crow South to the hallowed halls of Vogue — and his eventual fall.

In a conversational and earnest voice, the author chronicles his defining years learning under Diana Vreeland.