On this planet of excessive trend, André Leon Talley is usually described as a larger-than-life presence. The barrier-breaking Vogue journal editor, who died final 12 months at age 73, had a status for charming everybody round him whereas sporting designer caftans and theatrical jewellery.
Unbeknownst to many, Talley additionally spent a number of his life within the naves of Black church buildings, the place he was a dedicated neighborhood member.
Now, Talley’s private and non-private lives are coming along with Christie’s “The Assortment of André Leon Talley,” a 448-lot public sale that the New York Instances’ Vanessa Friedman calls the “trend sale of the century.” Proceeds will likely be cut up between Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, and Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Talley’s hometown of Durham, North Carolina.
“André, like most of us, simply needed to be beloved,” Darren Walker, president of the Ford Basis and a longtime pal of Talley’s, tells the Instances. “And one of many causes he actually beloved his church household is he was embraced unconditionally, and that wasn’t the case within the trend world, which sought to place him in a field of the caricature of the style diva.”
On Wednesday, the Christie’s assortment kicked off a three-city tour in Palm Seaside, Florida. It’ll make its strategy to Paris throughout couture week, then again to New York throughout trend week. On January 27, a lot of the sale will open on-line. Sixty-eight heaps will likely be auctioned dwell on February 15.
The sale will showcase “the worlds that André didn’t expose,” says Alexis E. Thomas, the executor of his property, to the Instances. On a regular basis objects going underneath the hammer embrace a pair of easy monogrammed canvas tote baggage from Talley’s time at Vogue (the place he turned the journal’s first Black male inventive director) and a tennis racket (thoughts you, the tennis racket is Chanel). Additionally on the market are a number of collections of books about trend, jewellery, popular culture, erotica, Russian artwork and design, inside design and extra.
“The issues which can be extra modest in worth are equally consultant and telling about who André was as a number of the extra precious issues which can be within the dwell public sale,” Bonnie Brennan, president of Christie’s Americas, tells Vogue’s André-Naquian Wheeler. “We wish to make sure that we honor the total legacy of André Leon Talley with our purchaser base.”
These objects will likely be offered alongside the sorts of trend luxuries Talley was identified for: designer gloves, sun shades and cufflinks; crocodile and alligator coats by Prada; Manolo Blahnik alligator sandals; and, after all, his iconic caftans, designed by the likes of Balenciaga, Gucci and Diane von Furstenberg.
Christie’s present complete estimate on the sale is $702,200. The Instances says that private property auctions are inclined to exceed expectations, pointing to the public sale of author Joan Didion’s belongings late final 12 months. Nonetheless excessive they go, the earnings will make an enormous distinction for the Black church buildings that performed an essential position all through Talley’s life.
“I really like the ritual of getting up, mentally making ready oneself for church, making ready oneself to greet the [congregants], the communication between different worshippers, and to embed myself inside a deep, deep service, which provides me energy to go on,” Talley instructed W journal’s Brooke Marine in 2020. “It’s a part of who I’m, it’s a part of who I turned from my childhood.”
