André Leon Talley

André Leon Talley Instagram – Grace Jones, on Ebony magazine cover in July 1979, when she emerged as Disco Queen.
Ebony magazine, has just published Covering America by @Rizzoli. This is a great book, showcasing every cover from the first in 1945 to 2020. Founded by John H . Johnson, Ebony magazine was the African-American community’s answer to Life or Look, It was family oriented, yet it focused on every aspect of life in this country and the world that dealt with black culture. For one December cover, Louis Armstrong was featured with the brassy Tallulah Bankhead. Lena Horne, and Aretha Franklin had so many covers. It is a compendium of the history of the struggle for quality, success, and progress of Black people. Based in Chicago, another great contribution was Johnson’s wife, Eunice Johnson, the founder of Ebony Fashion Fair, who gave annual traveling fashion extravaganzas to the United States and Puerto Rico. She was the first Black woman to proudly take a front row seat in Paris and buy French haute couture, in 1958. I worked for Mrs. Johnson, for one year in
1982, flying by Concorde to Paris, with her and her daughter Linda, to buy couture, to create dazzling shows
in cities across the USA. Tickets to these shows, were to support local charities, for education, inclusivity,
and empowerment. One of my favorite covers was the December 1978 cover of Mounia, YSL’s muse, in a gorgeous YSL hand-embroidered jacket in gold sequins. I am proud of my year with Mrs. Johnson, full time,
and I treasure being by her side, when she wrote Ebony checks for jackets like this gold bouillon for $50,000. 00! Mrs. Johnson also
embraced giant black Africain-American fashion talents like Scott Barrie, Stephen Burrows and the couturier, B. Micheal, who was the best friend and couturier and escort to Cicely Tyson. In its half century of existence, Ebony Fashion Fair, which started as a charity event for a hospital in New Orleans in 1958, raised 50 million dollars. From that, Ebony Fashion
Fair Cosmetics was created and sold in exclusive department stores and retail outlets. #ebony #thechiffontrenches #gracejones #newbook #cfda #vogue #blackfashion | Posted on 16/Feb/2021 03:29:23