For thus a few years, André Leon Talley had such a robust presence on the Met Gala. There have been all of the instances he labored the occasion, after which, in the direction of the top of his time at Vogue, the years he hosted the journal’s livestream of the pink carpet, providing his insightful, incisive commentary dwell from his perch on the prime of the museum’s steps. Although that relationship ended sourly, as he recounted in his 2020 memoir, Talley unequivocally left his mark on the occasion. For designer Victor Glemaud, the occasion’s return to the primary Monday in Could was a possibility to pay homage to the late editor, who handed away in January.
“If you consider the theme and also you consider ‘gilded glamour’ and also you consider André, it is all one and the identical,” he says.
The designer attended the 2022 Met Gala as a visitor of H&M. The chance got here up “fairly organically,” Glemaud says: He is labored with the Swedish style firm on the Met Gala previously, designing seems to be for its friends and escorting them up the pink carpet. When H&M reached out, he floated the concept of a tribute to Talley, to which “they instantly stated sure.”
Talley was synonymous with elegant, voluminous capes, so Glemaud and H&M created a silk taffeta opera coat for the pink carpet “that immediately says ‘André,'” worn over a white tuxedo. “The colours, the richness of it, the refinement, the ending, the excellence that André stood for — it is all on this look,” Glemaud says.
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Past referencing Talley’s signature cape, the designer nodded to different features of the late editor’s fashion: “André was all about traditional menswear and delightful English tailoring, and I believe we’ve got plenty of these components, from the lapel to the development of the very traditional tuxedo. It’s extremely conventional. We have made it in these shades of ivory so it feels extra modern, however the lower and every little thing about it is extremely conventional, which was very André — all the way down to the silk socks and the idler.”
“That is the primary time I’ve really been invited to the Met Gala — I’ve escorted folks earlier than — so I am thrilled that we may do it this fashion, paying tribute to an awesome one that’s legacy is phenomenal,” Glemaud says. “I am actually, actually glad. I hope [people] acknowledge that the legacy of André and the Met is larger than this second, and that we proceed to have fun him.”
Picture: Courtesy of H&M
Like numerous others who have been in a position to spend time with Talley within the hallowed halls of the Met, Glemaud cherishes these reminiscences, which he says communicate to the essence of who the trade legend was. One instance: “A few years in the past, again after they invited younger style folks to the after social gathering on the Temple of Dendur, when Venus and Serena Williams began attending style issues, we arrived and I went to say hi there to André,” he says. “And he goes, ‘Kiss Venus first!’ That is very a lot a vivid reminiscence of the Met Gala and André — even in his component, it was nonetheless about everybody else apart from him.”
As a designer residing and dealing in New York, Glemaud acknowledges the importance of the exhibit, which goals to have fun and uplift American style expertise. “Now we have to maintain exhibiting that there is expertise, there’s all the time been expertise — feminine designers from again within the day who’re on this exhibition, from Claire McCardell to Donna Karan to new younger designers that must also be showcased to a broader viewers who goes to the museum and stumbles upon this exhibition or involves the museum for this exhibition,” he says. “For people who find themselves coming tonight internationally, it is actually necessary to see the combo: You’ve got H&M and different international manufacturers celebrating American design. I believe it is improbable.”
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