Stephen Burrows receives Lifetime Achievement Award
André Leon Talley presenting his André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award.
Long before André Leon Talley, member of the SCAD Board of Trustees, wrote for “Vogue,” he came across a new designer featured in the magazine while studying at Brown University. Talley told the audience at the SCAD Museum of Art that the designer’s sense of style was like “an electric storm.” He went on to describe it as “a colorful double page spread and it showed his love for bold color, unorthodox combo of texture and pattern.”
The designer was Stephen Burrows, who was awarded last night with the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. Talley presented him with the award and gave a speech about Burrow’s influence on him and many other designers in the fashion world.
“Stephen Burrows was so much a part of my Brown University life, so I continued to track his evolution through the pages of ‘Vogue,’” Talley said. He even advised one of his friends from Brown to use one of Burrows’ designs for her wedding dress. He and his friends would drive down for the weekend to look at Burrows’ clothes at Henri Bendel.
One of Talley’s fondest memories of Burrows was during the fashion show at Versailles. He “brought the house down” with Pat Cleveland modeling his clothes and “personally invented American fashion.”
“The show made fashion history,” said Talley. “The whole entire fashion world in Paris was in uproar with the finale of Stephen Burrows… It was a legendary and historical show.”
Paula Wallace handing Steven Burrows the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award.
Talley went on to describe Burrow’s unique sense of style. “He is self-taught. He stumbled upon accidental sewing while he was in the Fashion Institute of Technology. The unexpected turn of the needle became his signature.”
Burrows drew inspiration from his childhood, especially from his mother and his father, who drew famous jazz stars in Harlem. Another source of inspiration was dancing, which is “so much a part of Stephen’s world.”
“Burrows is a world of wonder, a world of color,” Talley said. “And he is a wonder of inventive, American, original design.” He has been an inspiration to many designers. According to Talley, the fashion designer was the first to do the color block, which is now hugely popular among the designs of Celine and Michael Kors.
The designer’s works is not only seen on the runway and pages of fashion magazines, but also at museums. He is also a mentor for the graduate program at SCAD Atlanta.
This “American genius” is, as Talley put it, “a man of a few words.” When Stephen Burrows went onstage to accept the award, he was greeted with a standing ovation. He quickly said his thanks and walked off.
