This story originally appeared in i-D’s The Ultra! Issue, no. 369, Fall 2022. Order your copy here.
Andre Walker is, to those who know, a superstar of the fashion world: full of joy and exuberance and passion for the purity of elegance. He’s crafted a career unlike any other, one that stretches from staging his first show at fifteen in a Brooklyn nightclub, to his most recent collaboration with Off-White. Along the way he’s blazed a trail from London to New York to Paris, while resisting the easy categorisation of being a trailblazer. In fact, defying definition is one of the things Andre does best, instead constantly searching for beauty and glamour while designing collections under his own name and working extensively both with Marc Jacobs (at his own label and during his time at Louis Vuitton) and with Kim Jones. That both of those designers love and respect him to such an extreme degree should give you some indication of how talented and special he is.
Andre was born in London, was a downtown NYC underground fashion star in his teens and, with his precocious talent, soon made his way to Paris where he turned his encyclopaedic knowledge of fashion into a series of collections that turned him into a cult figure in the French capital. But he has always cautiously avoided the superficialities of the fashion system, instead searching for emotion, connection and modernism in clothes, even if paradoxically that modernism has meant returning to his past, revisiting old designs and remaking them anew. He presents collections when he needs or wants to, creating a body of work instead of submitting to the narrow ideologies of commerce and business.
He is then, paradoxically, the ultimate insider and the ultimate outsider. He remains adored by everyone – the aforementioned Marc and Kim, but also the likes of Rei Kawakubo and Adrien Joffe and Patricia Field and probably just about anyone in the industry you would care to ask – but appears content to be one step removed from the white heat of the industry itself, preferring the energy and freedom of cycling around New York City to the air-conditioned inhospitality of a limousine.
This paradox extends to his clothes too; both flat and voluminous, crafted with the singular integrity of the auto-didact. Often fabric is laid flat and cut simply into shapes freehand, without patterns, and then when worn transforms into billowing clouds of curves. They are elegant and timeless, finding new perspectives on classic visions of beauty. It is for all this that we wanted to celebrate him as this issue’s i-Con – and who better for him to be in conversation with than Marc Jacobs? Here, the two discuss Andre’s life and career, but also his love of fashion and culture, his interest in philosophy and religion, and his constant search for truth and beauty.
Felix Petty: Hey Andre. Hey Marc. How are you both doing?
Andre Walker: I’m sick as a dog. I’m going to survive, I’m sure, but I’ve been losing my mind. And I quit smoking, too, so I’m getting withdrawals from that. I don’t smoke that much, but I really wanted to quit. But there’s lots to talk about. We all know that I love Marc but do I know you, Felix? Have we ever met before?
Felix: We actually met very briefly once at Cicciolina Party in Paris after Fashion Week.
Andre: Of course! Gorgeous. I’m feeling better already. Memories of the dance floor will always bring me back. Oh, God. What a life! New York is beautiful at this moment. Too bad you’re not here.
Marc Jacobs: Hello!
Andre: Hello Mr. Jacobs!
Marc: I want to know: why am I the only one on video here? I’m looking cute and nobody is on the screen.
Andre: Take a picture, it’ll last longer, honey. How are you, babe? It’s so good to hear your voice.
Marc: How are you? You’re quitting smoking?
Andre: Don’t tell anyone though because no one even knows I’m even a smoker.
Marc: Please. I’ve known you to have quit smoking a hundred times now.
Andre: It’s good to quit. Never give up on quitting. But always give up on starting if possible. So what’s going on, kids? Mr. Jacobs? How are you, my darling?
Marc: Well, I’m very excited for this conversation we’re about to have.
Andre: Well, me too. And I’m in such a bitching mood. Not in a bad way, but I’m over it. All of it. Instagram, fashion, Zoom. It’s just a lot of work, you know?
Marc: Those feelings pass.
Andre: They do but it makes me so bloody crazy. You’ve got such a good handle on these things, Marc, you’re so level headed. Do you still do a lot of therapy?
Marc: Yes, yes. I’m a total mess. I don’t know what I would do without therapy.
Andre: Same here. I mean I’m always reading the Bible or a book by some controversial thinker, or listening to some pastor. I don’t know. I feel like right now, everything is just so… It’s so tiresome…
Marc: Yeah. Well, since you mentioned it, Andre, do you want to talk about religion, spirituality and the impact that reading the Bible has on your work and your wellbeing? I know how your life is in my eyes, and that you can’t separate any belief system from what it is.
Andre: I think really my philosophy is that the simplicity of life is lost on so many people. It’s phenomenal and exhausting to watch. I was listening to this pastor the other day and he said that you can’t put words under a microscope. It really made sense to me because no one challenges the postmodern relativism that marks so much of the world. For example, I think air is the most beautiful thing we have because it’s the one thing that the government hasn’t actually been able to charge us for. You know what I mean? I’m really trying to base and ground myself in these foundational truths. I was trying to explain this to this kid who was angry at me because I didn’t post anything about Pride, or anything about my racial identity – all this nonsense. I was like, “Why on earth would I want to identify myself with my sexual activity anyway?”
Marc: I remember hearing you speak really eloquently in that Warhol series about that.
Andre: Did they include that? I remember asking them not to publish that because I’d end up getting cancelled.
Marc: Oh yes they did, child. And you were great as always, so eloquent.
Andre: I’ve never felt so hesitant to express myself as I do now. But just the fact that really we are all humans does help because that’s the truth.
Marc: Most people spend time looking for the differences rather than the similarities. And that’s kind of where the problem lies.
Andre: Exactly. Sometimes I’m like, “Oh, I wish God would come back and give us all a break from ourselves.” That’s kind of my existential point of view on things right now. But Marc! How are you feeling these days? How are you in your life and career?
Marc: Well, Andre, this is really about you. Or maybe it’s about us talking? But it’s really about you. But I can tell you how I am: On a good day, I’m in a place of acceptance and appreciation. I’m like, “Okay, today, what can I do? I’m going to show up and I’m going to be of service by participating in my day, whether it’s a day I like or a day I don’t like.” Luckily what’s left of my business right now is healthy, and it gives me a little space with a few people to tell a story every six months. And I’m good with that and it’s all good. Of course, that’s a very superficial summary. But like I said, on a good day, I just try to be appreciative and make the decision that I am going to accept and adapt and then try to work through it.
Andre: Obviously you’re someone that I adore because you’ve treated me so beautifully as someone in your life, as a collaborator and a friend, and even just the foolishness of…
“I honestly believe that the only way that fashion is going to get better is by people telling the truth again.” Andre Walker
Marc: Oh my god. Our foolishness was unparalleled. What was that place in Paris?
Andre: The Folies Pigalle?
Marc: Yes. Sweetheart, the memories. Do you remember when I was in an ambulance? We’d been in the Folies Pigalle, and I had injured my foot and we had to go to hospital. You tried to stop the ambulance to pick up the new issue of Italian Vogue.
Andre: We were in the ambulance!
Marc: Yes. So if you want to get into foolishness… And what about the night at the Grande Epicerie with all the grocery carts and the vegetables…
Andre: Lord have mercy. Good heavens. Oh Lord. What a lifestyle?
Marc: Do you remember how we met first?
Andre: Yes. Yes. Yes. The first time we met was at Charivari.
Marc: What show of yours was it that I went to that was in a school auditorium?
Andre: That was at the High School of Fashion Industry. That was 1985. I’m sure we saw each other around before then, at parties and gigs. But I met you at Charivari because I remember your long hair, your beautiful face and you had just great energy. I think we became friends properly in Paris though.
Marc: Go back for a minute. In 1985, that fashion show, how old were you?
Andre: By then I would’ve been about eighteen. Don’t tell anyone but I’m 57 now, which is a nightmare.
Marc: Were you already working with Patricia Field at that point?
Andre: I’d been working with her for about two years by then. My very first show was at Cool Lady Blue’s at The Roxy. That was amazing. After that, I did a show at Danceteria. In 1983, I had a show at Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village. It was really going by that point.
Marc: How did you go about doing a show so young?
Andre: I guess when you’re fifteen and you’re obsessed with fashion the way we were, you kind of just meet people. I was cutting classes and hanging out with my Soho girlfriends and going to the Rock Lounge.
Marc: I remember thinking you had this really incredible group of people that you moved with and that were part of your world. I was like, “That is a world I want to know.” And you were the head. You know what I mean?
Andre: I was going to high school in Brooklyn and I started cutting class a lot. I wanted to go to Fashion Industries or LaGuardia but my parents didn’t allow me to, so I started to rebel and it was easy to rebel because I had been schooled by Italian Vogue since I was thirteen. I was reading W Magazine at seven. I was reading all this stuff about all these lifestyles but I didn’t really know anything about it. My career was really built on a lot of luck and a lot of chance and the idiocy and the ignorance that I blossomed in were definitely a part of that. Growing up at school and doing those shows when I was so young… that was kind of like the engine.
Marc: How did you make clothes back then? Were you making them yourself?
Andre: There were no patterns. It was really ad hoc. I was always drawing clothes and I would go and buy fabric and try and make the garment like the drawing. So it was all about the outline. I’d put the fabric on the floor and cut out what looked like a dress. So that was my informal design training, and that was combined with all the flourishes of the European design community at the time that I’d absorbed from reading magazines. I was obsessing about Zandra Rhodes, punk rock, Pablo and Delia. I’d been into it since I was ten years old.
Marc: I always remember your love for Anne Marie Beretta. I guess that was later?
Andre: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Anne Marie Beretta. That was insane. Forget about it. That was much later. I was being indoctrinated by all the international Vogues. So it was like Tan Giudicelli, and Anne Marie, Muriel Grateau, Walter bloody Albini.
Marc: Walter Albini! Definitely a moment.
Andre: I was living in this ginormous house that my mom purchased in 1979, and so a lot of the kids would come over and we’d make stuff together, and they’d wear things I made. I came to New York when I was six from London. In London my parents were part of the British-Caribbean community, which was all about suits and cars and glamour. And I just loved glamour. That’s kind of what helped me appear so exotic to my friends. I was this teenager with all these big proclamations about style and fashion. And so basically all of that, I guess, corrals with just the whole performance of the New York nightlife routine. By the time we were coming up, Studio 54 was already done. Actually I know you got a little bit of Studio 54 because you were two years older. And that was so hot. I’m so jealous. I had to live Studio 54 through all those magazines.
Marc: You really have knowledge. I remember when we’ve done things together, you’d pull up pictures from W Magazine’s old runway reports, where you’d get only two or three looks from a show – not like Vogue.com now. It was so special. We all lived for the reviews in Women’s Wear Daily.
Andre: The great thing about W was that you would open these two huge spreads. It’d be like four or five pages, right? But you would have at least, I don’t know, like 100 images on each page covering all of Paris. And all of that information actually taught me how to navigate and create my own nomenclature and design ideology. But it had nothing to do with merchandising or real business. It was really about aesthetic navigation. I know that it’s still possible to make something beautiful and to make something real and true that doesn’t necessarily have to be… I don’t know. Sometimes you just have to free yourself. I feel like over saturation has become a theme in the critique of fashion. But I think this critique no longer has any value…
Marc: Just in fashion, or in culture in general?
Andre: I’m so over culture right now…
Marc: Why are you over culture?
Andre: Because culture is this huge myth. People think it’s just one thing – like, in the 70s, you can say people were being hedonistic because of inflation, or because it was post-Vietnam, and that’s partly true, but there are always people who are thinking in different terms. Especially creative people. I think something that was different for people from our generation was that you had to make your own interpretation of culture. And you might make a “mistake” in that interpretation, because you lacked knowledge or schooling, but that mistake became a point of originality. But sometimes it’s great to know all the rules, and over time I’ve actually come to appreciate all the designers who I didn’t used to like because I thought they were too obvious. Like I’ve come to appreciate Cristóbal Balenciaga now. I’ve come to appreciate Yves Saint Laurent in a way I didn’t when I was seventeen.
Marc: Yves reminds me of you a little bit, in the way he draws. I remember when we were practically living together in Paris you’d have these sketch books and there would be these figures in a line across the page. Like, you were literally drawing out the looks, one after the other, page after page.
Andre: I think the only thing that’s really fierce about me is that I’m just not a good student. So everything that gets left out or chosen or abstracted or extracted is something that starts in my mind. I guess I’m such a contrarian.
Marc: You are.
Andre: For example, I’ve never accepted racism in my life but people have it in their heads that I’m someone who’s really courageous, and it’s not that I’m courageous, I just don’t pay attention. I would never imagine walking into a store and imagine them seeing me and being like, “Oh, you’re a Black person. You can’t want anything in here.” That’s not how I was raised. So if I’m buying Anne Marie Beretta coats and Thierry Mugler jackets for myself, and it’s 1985, and I’m nineteen…
Marc: We could talk for another day about the New York City of that moment.
Andre: Oh my God.
Marc: New York was full of people who just lived for fashion. The city was
so incredible in that way.
Andre: I honestly believe that the only way that fashion is going to get better is by people telling the truth again. I hope that can happen, but it’s going to take a real concerted effort because there’s not a lot of smart people making good clothes with great ideologies behind them at the moment. I have faith. People like Demna, I mean, he’s really good. I like how he aggrandises a lot of what he sees and he’s very, very sure about what he sees. I think that’s the most important thing for a designer. I think you really have to remove a lot of the excess chatter from the design room. I delete Instagram from my phone about four times a week just so I can think.
Marc: I know that very well. These people at Instagram have studied human behaviour and they know how to trap you in this thing.
Andre: It’s very oppressive. But what’s nice is when you get a break from it and you actually are talking with friends or watching a movie by yourself or reading a book alone quietly and you get inspired. So I think a lot of people need to just chill out on the screen.
Marc: Andre, do you have a favourite collection that you’ve done?
Andre: Yeah, absolutely. And it was the one that you helped me realise.
Marc: The one with the Lesage embroidery in it?
Andre: Yeah.
Marc: That was just the best… Oh, we had such a good time in that dining room in Paris.
Andre: Oh my God. Forget about it. For me, that was just such a beautiful collection because I remember the things that you were saying to me at the time, because you were like, oh, it’s not that cool if the hat matches the jacket. But I’m so scrappy. I’ll use the same fabric for the shoes, the hat, the bag.
Marc: Well, I guess we shifted, because that’s what I love doing now.
Andre: Well, totally, but that’s the whole joke and the whole beauty of fashion, all those migrating rules and migrating tastes. But elegance is elegance regardless. Some people are really hip and have taste and other people, they just throw anything on for effect. And I cannot take that. And I feel like there’s this really big distinction between designers that are really good, like Rick Owens, Marc Jacobs, Demna… I guess I’m the purist that Virgil Abloh was describing when he started talking about the ‘purist versus tourist’ distinction. I’m just over the tourism right now and I’m really in the mood for something pure. And that’s what was so beautiful about your last collection.
Marc: Oh, thank you. Andre. Thank you. Oh, I have a Gaultier question I’ve always wanted to ask you. If I remember, wasn’t there some kerfuffle about Gaultier back in the day, because you had done this really incredible pant skirt, and then Gaultier came to New York and did the same thing and everybody was like – that’s an Andre Walker skirt. Am I right?
Andre: Yes, that was mine. That was something that I was wearing to Paris to see the collections when I was like eighteen. I know that was where his idea came from. But when I made it, I didn’t know how to cut a skirt and I didn’t know how to make trousers, so I just grafted one onto the other. So it was a mistake that became something else, you know what I mean? And then the next year, when Gaultier came to town he asked me to model in the show with my brother, Solomon. So I decided to steal all the clothes from the show. I wasn’t stealing them because I wanted them, it was revenge for Gaultier stealing my ideas. But I got caught.
Marc: When did you move to Paris?
Andre: In 1991. But I’d been going to Paris regularly since I was like seventeen because I was just trying to escape. Can you imagine? But all of this superficiality and materialism in fashion now, it’s not everything that there is. I think fashion still has this incredible voice that can escape culture while informing it. Fashion is now imitating the financial system, with all these financial products, like NFTs, that have no value, or where the value is just in the perception. We’re moving in a direction where everything that is actually real is no longer being valued and everything that is false is what actually has this huge level of speculation and value to it. If you’re fifteen today you’re probably already exhausted by Instagram. So I think focus and concentration is going to be the new commodity.
Marc: I’m going to cut you off right there. I just want to ask you: what are you up to right now? What are you doing? What are you making?
Andre: So I spent the past six months at Pyer Moss and I met someone really incredible there, who’s a friend of Kerby Jean-Raymond, and they’ve invited me to start my own new collection. So of course I’ve been a nervous wreck since then. The last time that has happened was with Comme des Garçons.
Marc: Andre, everybody that I know that knows you or knows of you, everybody adores you. You have such incredible generosity of spirit and energy and warmth. It’s universal how people relate to you. I’d love to finish by talking about how you are such an incredible, extraordinarily generous spirit.
Andre: The reason, I think, is because I love the luxury of life. I can’t get enough of it. I love God and I love everything that I’m discovering right now. Truth is really important. It’s really interesting to keep things as simple as they can be without having to over-explain, or conceptualise, or label things. That’s what our world is currently facing on every single level. Women and men, and the patriarchy versus the matriarchy, and the race systems versus the humanitarian systems. I’m a little bit less interested in fashion right now, because I feel like fashion is so democratic. It’s all over the place, it’s there and here and there’s so many different versions of greatness and otherwise in fashion. So I’m thinking a lot about politics and language; journalism; I’m trying to read as many interesting thinkers as possible. I’m trying to avoid the buffet and trying to grow the vegetables in my garden, if you know what I mean. The whole world right now is in such a state you know?
Marc: Well, Andre…
Andre: Marc, you know, I love you.
Marc: You know Andre.
Andre: You know, Marc. You know, Marcus Sparkle. It’s so incredible. You go out to dinner one night and then you end up on a bloody phone call with Marc Jacobs, so cool.
Marc: Oh please. I hope they devote the entire issue to you and this conversation. It would be good for the people to get off Instagram and read this interview. Get out of the rabbit hole. There’s much more to life than Instagram.
Andre: We were on the phone forever.
Marc: I know, but I loved it. This was like a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful afternoon. Thank you very much.
Felix: Thank you both very much.
Andre: I love you!
Marc: I love you dearly.
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Credits
Photography Sam Rock