Topline
Trailblazing style icon André Leon Talley died Tuesday aged 73, a statement on his official Instagram account confirmed, sparking an outpouring of tributes from celebrities and style trade figures celebrating the journalist’s life and profession.
Andre Leon Talley died on Tuesday
Key Info
Talley died in New York, his representatives at TAA PR confirmed in a statement, applauding the “indomitable” and “larger-than-life” determine who oversaw Vogue’s ascendance as “the world’s style bible.”
In a profession spanning 5 many years, Talley—a uncommon Black man main in an elitist area dominated by white women and men—championed variety on the runway and in journal pages, working with and befriending the likes of Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Diane von Furstenberg.
Talley—a towering determine at 6-foot-7—was a regular fixture within the entrance row of the celebrated style reveals and, moreover many years at Vogue, additionally labored at Ladies’s Put on Each day and Interview.
Talley later appeared as a decide on actuality present America’s Subsequent Prime Mannequin, was creative director of Zappos and advised rapper will.i.am’s start-up.
The French authorities awarded Talley the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2021 in recognition of his contribution to style, an honor he described as “the perfect day in my life.”
Key Background
Talley was born in 1948 and raised in North Carolina in the course of the Jim Crow period, later transferring to New York in 1974. In New York, Talley labored his method up by way of the style trade and has suggested and helped gown among the world’s most recognizable figures, together with Michelle Obama when she was first girl and supermodel Naomi Campbell. Over time has authored various books, together with his current memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, which was a New York Instances finest vendor. Talley’s well-known and decades-long shut relationship with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is documented in numerous photos of the duo collectively, nevertheless their relationship later soured, which Talley recounted in his e book.
Tangent
Business figures and celebrities have paid tribute to Talley. British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, the primary Black individual on the publication’s helm, said: “With out you, there can be no me. Thanks for paving the way in which.” Supermodel Milla Jovovich described him as a “drive of nature,” Belgian designer Diane von Furstenberg said “nobody was extra soulful and grander” and costume designer Arianne Phillips described him as a “trailblazer” and “journalist with a singular voice.”
Additional Studying
André Leon Talley, Editor and Fashion Industry Force, Dies at 73 (NYT)