Remembering fashion icon André Leon Talley: the former Vogue editor gifted us behind-the-scenes glimpses at celebrity designers like Karl Lagerfeld and was lauded by Tom Ford
- Hired by Anna Wintour in the 1980s, Talley was an influential fashion journalist and a front row regular at runway shows in New York and Europe
- One of the first prominent African-American figures in the industry, Talley also appeared on TV shows like Sex and the City and America’s Next Top Model
André Leon Talley, the towering former creative director and editor at large of Vogue magazine, has died. He was 73.
Talley’s literary agent David Vigliano confirmed Talley’s death to USA Today late Tuesday, January 18, but no additional details were immediately available.
Talley was an influential fashion journalist who worked at Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue and was a regular in the front row of fashion shows in New York and Europe. At 198cm (6 feet 6 inches) tall, Talley cut an imposing figure wherever he went, with his stature, his considerable influence on the fashion world, and his bold looks.
Designer Diane von Furstenberg praised Talley on Instagram, writing: “no one saw the world in a more glamorous way than you did … no one was grander and more soulful than you were”.
In his 2003 memoir, A.L.T.: A Memoir, Talley focused on two of the most important women in his life: his maternal grandmother, Bennie Frances Davis and the late fashion editor Diana Vreeland.
“Bennie Frances Davis may have looked like a typical, African-American domestic worker to many of the people who saw her on an ordinary day, but I, who could see her soul, could also see her secret: that even while she wore a hair net and work clothes to scrub toilets and floors, she wore an invisible diadem,” he wrote.
His relationship with Vogue started at Duke University, where his grandmother cleaned dorms; Talley would walk to campus in his youth to read the magazine.