Fashion Titan and Trailblazer, André Leon Talley, Has Died at 73

By Alexus Mosley

Image courtesy of Getty

Fashion titan and trailblazer, André Leon Talley, has died at 73 after suffering from a heart attack and other underlying conditions at a hospital in White Plains, New York on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

Talley, who was often referred to as a “creative genius,” was best known for his time at Vogue where he was named creative director in 1988 and continued to work until 2013. Before his tenure at Vogue began in 1983 however, Talley had already become a force in fashion, getting his start as an intern to Diana Vreeland Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in 1974. An experience he would hold with great regard for the remainder of his life. He then went on to work for Andy Warhol at Interview, Women’s Wear Daily, and the New York Times.

André Leon Talley was born in Washington, D.C. in 1948 and raised by his grandmother in Jim Crow’s south of Durham, North Carolina, where he was an avid church goer and fashion enthusiast. An ardent Francophile, Talley graduated from North Carolina Central University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French Literature in 1970. He then won a scholarship to Brown University, where he completed a Master of Arts degree in French Literature in 1972. He later stated, “ I didn’t know what I was doing except that I loved French. When I got to Paris and I could speak French, I know how much it helped me to establish relationships with Karl Lagerfeld, with the late Yves Saint Laurent. French, it just helps you if you’re in fashion. The French people started style.”

His flamboyant, larger than life personal captured the hearts of many after his appearance in the 2009 documentary, The September Issue, and landed him a role as a judge on hit show America’s Next Top Model in 2010 and 2011. André Leon Talley shattered industry barriers being the first black man in many instances, including the first black man to hold his position at Vogue. A globetrotter, socialite, renowned expert in fashion, art, and literature, and a man of grandeur, Talley held close relationships with many influential figures, such as Oscar de le Renta, Diane von Furstenberg, Lee Radziwill, Naomi Campbell, Karl Lagerfeld, and of course Anna Wintour, with whom he worked closely with for decades.

In his later years, Talley starred in his own documentary The Gospel According to André, penned a New York Times Bestseller memoir, The Chiffon Trenches (which provided much insight to the many racial battles and tensions he faced throughout his career), and continued to serve as a mentor to students at Savannah College of Art & Design as he had done since 2000. He remained devoted to his faith, a member of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church until his death. An inspiration to many he once said, “To my 12-year-old self, raised in the segregated South, the idea of a Black man playing any kind of role in this world seemed an impossibility,” he wrote in his memoir. “To think of where I’ve come from, where we’ve come from, in my lifetime, and where we are today, is amazing. And, yet, of course, we still have so far to go.”