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André Leon Talley, Diane Von Furstenberg, and More Remember Where They Were on 9/11

DVF, André Leon Talley, and Stefano Tonchi.
DVF, André Leon Talley, and Stefano Tonchi. Photo: Eric Ryan; Karl Walter; Zunino Celotto/Getty Images/2011 Eric Ryan

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we ask designers and editors at New York Fashion Week to tell us where they were on that tragic morning.

André Leon Talley
“On 9/11, that morning, I was in a Christian Dior Couture appointment at the Hotel Pierre. The Dior ladies were saying there was — on a television in the other room — a plane crashed into the world towers. And I said, ‘Oh it must be a helicopter,’ and they said no, and they turned on the TV and everything stopped. When we saw it on TV, when they started showing the towers, we left and by the time I got downstairs to the ground floor, I could see the smoke in the air all the way downtown. And I went from the Hotel Pierre walking through the park — I was on the west side trying to get home to Westchester, and I didn’t come back to the city for three days. When I got to the west side I managed to get a car.”

Diane Von Furstenberg, Designer and CFDA President
“I was making my breakfast, and opening the New York Times and reading Cathy Horyn’s review of my collection and then the first plane crashed, and then the second. This morning I watched the memorial; I thought it was very beautiful. I thought of my girlfriend that I lost. I feel very American today. And yet I’m not really, but today I feel very American. And [today’s spring 2012] show is called ‘Beginning,’ and that’s a little bit for that reason. The show is about the dawn, it’s about hope, it’s about life. It started with Africa, but there’s very little Africa left — it’s just the inspiration. But the hope, the hope! I’m promoting hope.”

André Leon Talley, Diane Von Furstenberg, and More Remember Where They Were on 9/11