MY LIFE WITH ANDRÉ

On the eve of a new exhibition of André Leon Talley's life in clothes, Hamish Bowles remembers his daunting friend and colleague.

- By Hamish Bowles

ON WITH THE SHOW CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Talley and Linda Evangelista backstage at the Chanel couture show in 1992; en route to Donald Trump's wedding to Melania Trump in 2005; at a party at Calvin Klein's apartment in 1976.

Long before André came into my life, he'd already led a fascinating, complicated, and mercurial one himself. He was a distant, almost mythic figure to me—a curious mixture of bravado (even braggadocio), glamour, kindness, and faith. I learned later that he was brought up in Durham, North Carolina, mostly by his grandmother Bennie Frances Davis, who worked as a cleaning lady at Duke University for 50 years. Her clothes, if few, were immaculate—for her, being well-dressed was both a compliment to other people and a service to oneself—and she was adored by her grandson.

André had been an exemplary student at Brown University, after which he moved to New York City and began an apprenticeship at The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum under the redoubtable Diana Vreeland in 1974. And though André absolutely savored New York, he had no money, so he picked up incredible pieces at thrift stores, including the long military coat that he wore constantly—including to the party that The Met held at the end of the official gala, where he joined all the other kids who wanted to see what the guests were wearing as they raced through the Great Hall to their waiting limousines.

He also found a pith helmet, army shirts (always laundered and starched), a safari jacket, and Bermuda shorts, and with these he cut a distinctive, often eccentric, figure.