Talley ho
Can Mariah Carey, queen of the fashion faux pas, be saved? Through her own misguided sense of style, the international pop diva has assembled one of the gaudiest wardrobes in the celebrity world. She's been caught wearing head-to-toe Chanel on the Aspen ski slopes and climbing a StairMaster in black stilettos on MTV's "Cribs".
Her red-carpet outfits include crooked, cut-up gowns, skintight slit dresses, boob-alicious ball gowns and sequined tube tops with jeans - all reminiscent of the wares at a tacky, sequin-filled wholesale boutique. But along with last month's unveiling of her new album, "The Emancipation of Mimi", Carey has been trying to add some class to her tacky image, calling on high-profile fashion insiders for help - most notably Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley, as The Post reported yesterday in Page Six.
"In the beginning of the media campaign for the album, designers were reluctant to help,"says June Ambrose, a personal stylist Carey hired to revamp her look. "But André has been very helpful, along with the association of the Vogue family and haute couture Europe. It's been a great marriage."
Since Carey started her makeover mission four months ago, she's had a few striking hits: a gorgeous Ralph Lauren white silk gown, a sexy Valentino dress worn on "Good Morning America" and a flattering black Louis Vuitton dress for a Karl Lagerfeld dinner. "She's a lady and her new look says I've grown up and I understand that I don't have to be overtly sexually and compromise my integrity and who I am," says Ambrose.
But she looked as tacky as a Lee Press-On nail in an Alexander McQueen haute couture gown at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball. The dress, arranged for with a phone call from Talley, was inspired by the one Melania Knauss wore on the cover of February's Vogue. Four months ago, the pop diva approached Talley at Diane von Furstenberg's pre-Oscar cocktail party, and asked for his opinion on some possible album covers.
"She came up to me and said, 'I've been looking for you for four months'," Talley told The Post. "She said, 'I want you to look at photographs of my album cover and tell me what you think.' I was very impressed and proud of her and told her the cover looked like Sandro Botticelli's painting 'The Birth of Venus'," he says.
Talley insists he and Carey are churchgoing friends who "inspire" each other, that he is not on her payroll, nor is he trying to remake her as a style icon. "I take no credit in having anything to do with Mariah's next role as a fashion diva," he says. "I am not a fashion steward. I am not there making fashion decisions for Mariah."
He is, however, an accomplice, helping her mend her broken ties with top fashion houses angered by her ersatz alterations of their designs. "She saw the cover I did with Melania and she said, 'I want the same dress. Why haven't you suggested I wear this dress to the Oprah ball?'" Talley says. "I made the phone call and it happened and Mariah paid for the dress."
Some fashion stylists say Carey is way too stubborn to change - she'll never ditch her charm bracelets, rainbows or glitter. "I like the idea that she cuts up people's dresses because that's what makes it her own," says E! "Fashion Police" commentator Robert Verdi. "We accept it and expect it because it's part of her look," he adds. Still, "the fashion community doesn't think of her as an icon [like] Sarah Jessica Parker or Madonna or J.Lo."
But with Talley whispering in her ear, she has a chance. "If someone can do it, Andre can put her in that realm," says Alison Lang, a stylist for MTV. "It wouldn't surprise me if she turned herself around and... came out with a clothing line herself."
Even if Talley and team manage to transform Carey into a runway icon, it doesn't mean her inside connection will help her snag the coveted cover of Vogue, a la Knauss. That'd be up to editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. "I have no power in choosing the Vogue cover," Talley insists. "That is not my responsibility."
And Vogue is already trying to distance itself from Carey. Just after The Post interviewed Talley, a Vogue rep called to stress that the magazine and Mariah are not working together in a professional capacity. "I know he was helping her as a friend and he helps all his friends," says the rep. "But this is not the André and Mariah show." (New York Post)
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