André Leon Talley praised Vogue magazine’s controversial cover featuring Senator Kamala Harris’.
The Afro-Indian vice president-elect is pictured smiling apprehensively with her hands clasped in front of her on the February 2021 issue. Instead of the glam look, she is clad in casual work clothes and black Converse Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers.
The controversial “working girl” cover sparked fury on social media, with many saying the cover was “disrespectful” and even racist.
But Talley, a former editor-at-large for American Vogue, supported his former boss, Anna Wintour, in a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday.
“It’s GREAT. JUST GREAT. GREAT,” he wrote, after Wintour responded to the backlash in a statement on Tuesday. Talley said the cover will inspire young women around the world to wear work clothes rather than expensive designer clothing.
“Her work uniform with her ubiquitous Converse sneakers is aspirational. I predict its [sic] going to set a trend for all young women all over the world, [who] are going to dress like Kamala Harris,” he wrote.
Talley, 71, defended 26-year-old aspiring photographer Tyler Mitchell — the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for American Vogue in the magazine’s history.
Talley said Mitchell’s layman photography “comes from a universe that is new. He is not aligned with the titans of @vogue photographers before him… His work must be seen through the prism of 2021.”
Harris’ frantic staffers contacted Vogue editors on Monday after the cover leaked over the weekend. They demanded to know why Vogue chose a “test photo” for its print edition rather than the agreed upon photo of Harris wearing a powder blue pantsuit. The latter photo was chosen for the online digital edition instead.
There were calls for Wintour to step down, but Talley said she isn’t going anywhere.
“All I can say is Anna Wintour is not abdicating. And I wish I was there, at Vogue, to celebrate w/the team,” he wrote.
