GOWN SYNDROME Talley, with Jennifer Hudson, in 2007, 2005 (inset)
It's hard not to notice a man who's six-foot-seven and wears a muumuu. But when Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley showed up at Valentino's 45th anniversary party in Rome earlier this month clad in a succession of brightly colored caftans, he turned heads for a different reason.
Many fashion insiders recall how Talley, having ballooned to well over 300 pounds, took to wearing what he called "tepee tents" designed by his friend Karl Lagerfeld. But in 2005, after losing much of his excess poundage thanks to a Spartan diet, he proudly proclaimed (on Oprah, no less) that his days of wearing tepees were over at last.
We contacted Talley to see if his return to shape-concealing man-dresses means he's fallen off the dietary wagon, but haven't heard back.
Click here to see how fashion's big man has waxed and waned over the years.