The Gospel According to André

Kate Novack's 2018 documentary is about the fashion editor André Leon Talley. He grew up in a southern state where segregation was law, was raised by his grandmother and moved from there into the world of fashion. The interest is how that passage was possible. Talley worked for a long time as the only Black person in that world; in his own account there are traces both of acceptance and of being permanently outside, and the narrative does not soften them. Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford are among those who speak. Talley's clothing, his language and his church background are treated together inside the narrative. The tone is warm and the documentary largely stands beside its subject. Who it's for: those who like fashion history and portraits of individuals. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a hard examination of the industry's racial politics; the documentary leaves that at the level of implication.