Ex-Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley had the fashion community buzzing this past week with the reveal of tea-filled excerpts from his upcoming memoir The Chiffon Trenches. While Talley commented on multiple people in the industry, most of the chatter was focused on his criticisms of Anna Wintour, who he described as “immune to anyone other than the powerful and famous people who populate the pages of Vogue.
American designer Ralph Rucci jumped in the fray with a lengthy post on Instagram on Saturday (April 25, 2020). While Talley’s critiques were focused on Wintour’s icy personality, Rucci instead challenged her credentials as a creative leader. Comparing Wintour to some of fashion’s most iconic editors, he wrote, “I will write about what I had to contend with concerning this very, very meaningless person who deeply knew that she had no substance to exist in the realms of [Carmel] Snow, [Diana] Vreeland, [Grace] Mirabella, [Eve] Orton and [June] Weir.
Likely referencing Condé Nast chairman S.I. Newhouse, who died in 2017, he wrote, “She did not act alone, she had a diabolical man who assisted in the santanic plan.” Slamming the door on his tirade, he wrote, “It’s a severe injury to the brain to realize that we have tolerated this mediocrity in our metier for almost four decades.”
Rucci left his eponymous label in 2014. It’s assumed he was forced out by billionaire investors Nancy and Howard Marks, who purchased a majority investment in the label in 2013 and were said to be frustrated by Rucci’s unwillingness to make offerings more accessible.
In addition to his bespoke work, in 2016 Rucci launched RR331, a label whose last presentation was staged in Paris in July 2019. Rucci stands as among among just a few American designers to be invited by the France’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to show a haute couture collection.
