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Andre Leon Talley on Anna Wintour’s Meeting With Donald Trump: ‘She’s a Powerful Woman’

Andre Leon Talley
Andre Leon Talley Andrew Toth/WireImage

The Trump family is not in vogue, according to Monsieur Vogue himself. The fashion bible’s contributing editor André Leon Talley sounded off about the president-elect and the future first lady in a New York Times interview posted on Thursday, December 21.

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“You make the choice to be in Trumpland or you make the choice to eject yourself from the horror of Trumpland,” the former editor at large of Vogue, 67, proclaimed. “I’ve made my choice not to be part of Trumpland.”

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Talley’s declaration came after his friend, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, was spotted leaving New York City’s Trump Tower on December 13, presumably after a meeting with Donald Trump. The former Celebrity Apprentice star also met with rapper Kanye West and Microsoft founder Bill Gates that day.

“As for Anna Wintour going to Mr. Trump, she’s a powerful woman, she’s running an empire, she’s the editorial director of Condé Nast,” Talley continued. “We can’t judge her for going to a meeting. She’s a professional, powerful woman. That’s all I have to say.”

Regarding the future first lady, Melania Trump, who covered the February 2005 Vogue for her nuptials to The Donald, Talley had only kind things to say … for the most part. “She’s a nice person. I do not endorse Trumpism on any level. So why can’t one be positive and want her to shine? I mean, it’s good she cares about napkins, crystal, dinner plates with gilded edges to the point of over the top, and abundant flower arrangements,” he said. “In the end, why pick on her when they should be picking on her husband’s billionaire cabinet and his seeming readiness to turn the country back towards oppression, anti-Semitism, anti-culturalism, etc.” Talley also noted that he went to Paris Fashion Week shows with Melania and helped her choose her Dior wedding gown too.

Andre Leon Talley
Melania Trump and Andre Leon Talley during MAC Cosmetics Hosts Launch Party for Andre Leon Talley’s New Book, “A.L.T. 365” in 2005. Stephen Lovekin/WireImage)

As for style, Talley prefers a Hillary Clinton pantsuit over a Melania jumpsuit. “I voted for Hillary Clinton. I registered in North Carolina because it mattered. I went through hoops of fire to get my absentee ballot. And, quite frankly, I thought she would have brought back the pantsuit. I thought the gray trouser suit designed by Ralph Lauren she wore with the purple satin shell and the lapels matching the blouse was brilliant. The elegant anthracite gray dry wool actually was slimming,” he noted. 

Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP

He was less impressed with the fashion choices of Melania, “who opted at 3 a.m. for a palazzo jumpsuit, with one arm exposed and a flounce over the other — it seemed to me too Mar-a-Lago, a huge, full-volume jumpsuit,” Talley added. “Trying too hard. And I am so tired of the long hair falling on both sides of her face. She has to upgrade her coiffure.”

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