Part II: André Leon Talley's 'Anna' Interviews
Before he died, the late fashion icon shared his memories about Anna Wintour and his thoughts on her legacy.
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This is the second part of my interviews with André Leon Talley, conducted for ANNA: The Biography in the spring of last year. Read the first part here.
You worked on the February 2005 cover story of Melania Trump wearing her wedding dress. What do you remember about that?
My memory is that Melania came into Vogue with Paul Wilmot, public relations man. And I was called into Anna's office. They were all seated in front of Anna's desk, and Anna said, “André, you're going to Paris with Melania to pick her wedding trousseau, she's going to be married to Donald Trump.” And then we went off to Paris and we selected the clothes. We became friends after that. It was a pleasant experience. Anna went to the wedding, I went to the wedding, Hillary and Bill Clinton went to the wedding. But the dress was chosen at Dior. We went to all the houses. Melania spent a week in Paris and we went to all the appointments and the fittings, et cetera, et cetera. So this was my assignment.
So if Anna approved all the clothes that were photographed in the magazine, she would have certainly approved the dress that she wore on the cover and thus Anna would have approved the dress she wore at her actual wedding?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Anna is involved in everything, every detail. Anna was involved in every detail of that.
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