Andre Leon Talley and His Caftans Reject the Gay-Straight Binary, TYVM

In the September issue of Vanity Fair, the venerable Andre Leon Talley, former editor at Vogue, former judge on America’s Next Top Model and current editor-at-large for Numéro Russia, tells writer Vanessa Grigoriadis that he rejects the label “gay.”

Grigoriadis asks Talley if he thought he was gay, even in high school. He replies: “No, no, no. I was just into my magazines and the drawings. I had a very strict upbringing, almost puritanical. I lived there all the way through college. I was in my grandmother’s house, and I respected that!”

Talley tells Grigoriadis that he rejects the “label” and says that, while he has “had very gay experiences, yes, I swear on my grandmother’s grave that I never slept with a single designer in my life. Never, ever desired, never was asked, never was approached, never, ever bought, in my entire career. Never. Not one. Skinny or fat. Never.”

Talley also says he’s never been in love with a man — just two women. And he also discusses his weight:

“I do not weigh myself,” Talley claims. “I do not want to get on that scale. I only know what I weigh from the way my clothes fit.” He reveals that he had a lap band that has not worked; he keeps eating even with it in. “The people who are really close to me and know me have stopped bringing my weight up,” he says. “They probably discuss it behind my back, some of them, in the fashion world.” But his weight has never affected his self-esteem. “I have never felt less of a person because of my dramatic weight gain,” Talley says. “Up or down, my confidence and sense of self never wavered.”