At 60, Andre Walker Still Considers Himself an Emerging Designer

We talked with the designer ahead of his CFDA award tonight.

To be called a New York icon — an IYKYK-kind-of genius — is an honor bestowed on few yet designer Andre Walker has genuinely earned that mantle. As someone whose influence has shaped the lives and work of an entire creative community across Paris and New York, Walker’s impact crosses disciplines. From his early years in London to moving to New York with his mother and sister as a child, the designer demonstrated a precocious understanding of fashion. He was 15 when he first presented his designs, by 18 he staged his first runway show. Then Walker moved on to a bigger stage in Paris in addition to consulting for giants like Marc Jacobs, Kim Jones, and Rei Kawakubo. Even so, today at 60, he insists he feels like an emerging designer. 

Well, that emerging designer is about to get a long-over due acknowledgement. Tonight, he receives the CFDA’s Isabel Toledo Board of Directors’ Tribute, which honors his contributions to both the fashion industry and its creative community. With Walker, community is a word that comes up often – always in place of industry – which might just be the essence of who he is: someone who values creation within the context of community, not for the profit of the industry.

We caught up with the designer ahead of his CFDA Award to talk about growing up in New York, the moment Patricia Field bought his first collection, and his favorite magazines.

1. What does it mean to you to receive this award and recognition from the CFDA?

I really sometimes just wish I had a clone of myself that I could program to give all the right answers, you know? But honestly, apart from being surprisingly honored and a bit bemused in a very real way, I’m just working on accepting it as a wonderful blessing from God.

2. You were surrounded by the likes of Bill Cunningham, Andy Warhol, and more during the 80s in New York. What was it like to be around such iconic creatives at such a young age during a pivotal moment for the city’s culture?

I was a rebel, rebelling against my mom’s decisions of not allowing me to go to fashion high school. But at the same time, it didn’t really feel like that. I mean, of course I was furious, but when you’re 15 and perhaps like me, you forget stuff and move on. You scream, you shout, you kick, and then you end up going to Brooklyn Tech. And then you’re like, oh, wait a minute, I have to get back to my fashion drawings while I’m in science or math class. I started drawing on t-shirts, sewing them at my mom’s store, and then eventually cutting clothes — something my girlfriend Rhonda taught me how to do. By the time I was 15, I had my first fashion show. And then by the time I was 18, I had my first fashion shows in the city at Kool Lady Blue’s Roxy Nightclub. 

3. Can you remember the first fashion image, magazine or personality that sparked your interest in fashion?

My mom had a subscription to W Magazine, and Architectural Digest. She was super in the know, so we’d walk around the West Village with her friends and also go to the Met Museum with my sister —  amazing outings.  And of course, my mom was dragging me to the international hair and beauty shows at what was then called the Nassau Coliseum. I’d see all these kinds of hair styles and mini fashion shows with my mom.

I started reading W in 1976. By the time I was 10 or 11, I was fully immersed in Italian Vogue, Interview, After Dark, and Playgirl. I used to cut photos out and trace them. I would also put them on my wall. So my bedroom in Brooklyn was totally filled with every possible European designer. I was a real snob when it came to fashion, imagery, and looks, I was totally against anything that wasn’t avant-garde.

4. What was the reaction to those first collections? Did you feel supported by your community? Did anyone buy the clothes? 

It’s so funny because my very first collection was sold to Patricia Field.I discovered Patricia Field early because I was always in the West Village — I grew up there with my mom.

Did you expect that – having Patricia Field buy your whole collection? 

Well, you know, when you’re 17 or when you’re 15, you’re not really thinking. Between 15 and 20 years old as a young man it was one of the most buoyantly observant and creative and budding periods. I really was outrageous. I knew how to do makeup. I knew how to make hair. I was just surrounded by all this aesthetic craft. So I was around all that creativity already. 

5. You’ve not only shown your own designs, but helped others create some of their best work such as Marc Jacobs and Kim Jones. What is it like to consult as opposed to putting out your own work? 

Well, after having my first show in Paris, with real production and a showroom, it felt super official. By the time 1995 came around, I had done my last show from that first series that started in 1991 in Paris. Then I began again in 1998 and continued until 2001, doing another six or seven shows, around thirteen or fourteen in total. After that came lots of styling and advertising work.

When I started consulting with other designers in ’98, it felt really natural, a genuine extension of my own abilities. That was my language: aesthetics and style. Looking back at what I was doing in the 90s in Paris, it really didn’t connect much with what else was happening at the time.

Later, when I came back to New York in the early 2000s, that’s when I became fully aware of what I could do. Working with Marc taught me a lot, especially when I returned to New York. I realized how incredible the city was. For a long time, New York had been the last stop in the fashion cycle, but when that reversed and New York started showing first, it felt exciting, like a place where you could actually build and develop ideas that influenced the entire community.

6. You seem to always have new projects – what are you working on at the moment? 

I’m working on my CV and looking for a place where my creativity can really belong. Over the years, I’ve gathered quite a few artifacts, and I need to start respecting my work as something separate from myself, to become, in a way, an ambassador for it.

So you’re going through a kind of archiving process?

Yes, of course. At the same time, working as an emerging designer simultaneously. What I think the most beautiful thing about my trajectory is that I am largely underexposed while being overexposed. I guess what’s great is that the purest essence of my abilities has not been fully exploited. Not by me, anyway. 

7. Throughout your career, you’ve been an advocate for Black talent and been a role model for so many. Can you reflect on that? 

To answer your question about being a Black advocate, I’ve never really seen myself that way. I live in a world guided by my awareness of things: of physiology, physiognomy, biology, and reason. I’m not particularly inspired by dominance, that approach is rooted in Western ideas of evolution and hierarchy. I’m much more drawn to the idea of creation.I love the idea of freedom and equality for all.The truth is, most of us aren’t trained that way academically. Education tends to reinforce dominance and hierarchy, regardless of political or psychological perspective.

So maybe for Black people, or people of color in general, it’s surprising — but I never thought of myself as a “Black person” until someone told me I was. I was going to school in London when I was four, five, six, seven years old — surrounded by Chinese, White, Indian, Black, and mixed-race kids. I just didn’t notice those differences. My family’s Jamaican, but being raised in London, I didn’t grow up with that mindset.

Maybe that’s just something personal, something I was unaware of. But honestly, looking at W Magazine in the 70s, you wouldn’t necessarily see divisions like that — fashion always seemed, at least from the outside, like a space that embraced a kind of egalitarian vision.

8. You’re a magazine collector, and have published your own “objectzine”. 

Can you speak more about the “objectzine” TIWIMUTA: Who were your main

collaborators? Do you still have copies? 

Oh my gosh, I found about two hundred of them! I’m definitely planning to do some kind of event for those soon. I just need to find someone to help take care of it. I feel like that’s part of the estate now. If you look at the roster, I had people like Kim Jones, Marc Jacobs, Ryan McGinley, Jonathan Newhouse, the list goes on. My biggest regret, though, was not including President Obama and Bill Cunningham in the issue. I still kick myself for that. But Bill was incredible, even trying to pin him down was a challenge. He’s one of my idols.

TIWIMUTA came about during that period when I was styling and consulting nonstop. It was the first time I started using magazines, my own sketches, and images I found online or at the library to help translate ideas for other people’s projects. I also wanted to show Jonathan Newhouse what I thought Vogue could be — I always believed Vogue should do a major biennial. With an audience like that, it could have done it. 

Both issues of TIWIMUTA were really cool. The first one broke the bank, it was wild and full of energy, we used fourteen different types of paper. The second was more coherent and carefully edited, but still highly performative.

9. What makes a good fashion magazine? 

The people and the minds involved. When you look at all of the magazines, that’s when you get an idea of what a good one is — it’s always responding to a need. You have these little pockets and niche societies of people that are totally aware together. 

10. What or who in fashion, art or music inspires you today? 

I listen to a lot of experimental electronic music. Sometimes I like very classical things like Eric Satie and I also love Ravel. I also love Machine Drums, Alice Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, Raw Control, there’s so many. Andre 3000, Erica Buehrens, I could go on. I think The Weeknd has something going for him. I love Pharrell. I love Radiohead.