Fashion icon and former Vogue editor André Leon Talle in an interview yesterday (June 10, 2020) with Sandra Bernhard on her Sirius XM “Sandyland” show commented on Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour‘s letter to Condé Nast staff acknowledging difficult working conditions for black employees.
Unimpressed by her promise to bring change, Talle explained, “Dame Anna Wintour is a colonial broad, she’s a colonial dame, she comes from British. She’s part of an environment of colonialism. She is entitled and I do not think she will ever let anything get in the way of her white privilege.”
Talle also views Samira Nasr‘s recent appointment as the first black editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar as a competitive threat. “Clearly that [staff] statement comes because [Nasr] is going to run competition rings around her.”
He added, “Her power base has been somewhat affected by the competition of this young African American who is going to be historically the first black female editor of a great, great magazine. There are only two great magazines, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.”
Talle casued a stir earlier this year when he released his autobiographical book, The Chiffon Trenches. In the book he described Wintour as obsessed with clout and was also critical of how he handled his departure.
Check out the exchange below.
