According to a statement on his official Instagram account, André Leon Talley, the former longstanding creative director of Vogue and a fashion legend in his own right, died at the age of 73.
Talley was a trailblazer in the fashion business, a Black guy in a profession dominated by White men and women.
Talley discussed the difficulty of encouraging diversity on the glossy pages of fashion magazines during a presentation at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2017.
"I worked behind the scenes. I did it in dulcet tones, and I was persistent and tenacious....I always assumed a very quiet role. I didn't scream and yell and shout....That was the best strategy, because that was the world I moved in. After all, it was Vogue, darling," he said
Talley was born in Washington, DC, but his parents moved him to Durham, North Carolina, when he was two months old, where he was raised by his grandmother, Bennie Francis Davis, whom he affectionately referred to as Mama.
He highlighted his early thrill of immersing oneself in books in the public library in Durham in his 2020 memoir, "The Chiffon Trenches." "My world became the glossy pages of Vogue," he said, "where I could read about Truman Capote's epic party at the Plaza in honor of Katharine Graham."
Photos from the Met Gala that have never been seen before show celebs having a good time.
The inauguration of President John F. Kennedy and the presence of his attractive wife Jackie Kennedy was a defining milestone in his adolescence, and he described her as the "first influencer" of his generation.
Talley came in New York in 1974 and rapidly found himself at the frenetic crossroads of fashion and art, working and mixing with Halston, Karl Lagerfeld, and Andy Warhol, among others.
Talley joined Vogue as news director in 1983 after a spell at Women's Wear Daily in Paris. In 1988, he was elevated to creative director and then became editor-at-large. He worked at Vogue for nearly four decades, with the exception of a brief stint at W magazine in Paris.
Talley was a towering presence in every way, standing 6.6ft and speaking with a booming voice. He was frequently spotted in the front row of high-end fashion shows with editor-in-chief Anne Wintour, and his impact on the industry lasted long after he left Vogue in 2013.
Talley was a judge on "America's Next Top Model" and the subject of the documentary The Gospel According to André, which was published in 2017. He was also given the Chevalier of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to the fashion industry.
In an Instagram post on April 22, 2021, he called the French honor the "greatest day of my life."
Late Tuesday, tributes to Talley began flooding in, with writer Roxane Gay hailing him as "a light of style for so many" on Twitter. Meanwhile, Edward Enninful, the editor-in-chief of British Vogue, honored the late legend for "paving the way," saying on Instagram: "Without you, I wouldn't exist."
Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg tweeted, "Rest in peace @OfficialALT." "You will be missed."
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