In 1994, Hilton Als wrote a profile of Talley for The New Yorker, titled “The Only One”. It chronicles Talley’s professional life and details his origin story. But he also recounts an incident during a lunch he gave at the Café Flore in Paris. After eating, the guests gather for a photo. There are lots of laughs and jokes and one of the guests refers to Talley, his host, using the n-word. The way she pronounces the word suggests she uses it to titillate – like a moth flying boldly past a flame. Everybody laughs. Talley laughs too. But as Als writes, “He closed his eyes, his smile widened, his back stiffened, as he watched his belief in the durability of glamor and allure shatter before him into a million pieces. sparkles. Talley tried to pick up those pieces. He sighed, then stood up and said, “Come on kids, let’s go see Something.”
