André Leon Talley, the former creative director and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine, has died aged 73.
And at six feet six inches tall with countless iconic outfit moments over the years, Talley was a powerful and influential figure wherever he went, often side-by-side with Anna Wintour.
To pay tribute to Talley, we take a look back at his life, including his childhood, his rise to the top of the fashion industry's elite - the drama that came with that - and finally the legacy he leaves behind.
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Andre Leon Talley's childhood.
Talley was born in 1948 and raised by his grandmother Bennie in Durham, North Carolina.
"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 hairnet and work clothes to scrub toilets and floors, she wore an invisible diadem," he wrote in his 2003 memoir.
"My mother figure to this day is my grandmother. She gave me unconditional love and her home, her values, were my arc of safety," Talley told The Guardian in 2020.
Sadly throughout his childhood, Talley experienced bullying and sexual abuse. The first abuser was a man who lived on their street. Later, there were older brothers of friends.
Talley's relationship with Vogue started at Duke University, where his grandmother cleaned dorm rooms. In his youth, Talley would walk to campus to read the magazine in the library.
He soon met renowned fashion editor Diana Vreeland, the pair striking up a friendship that lasted until her death in 1989. During her life, she had worked for Harper's Bazaar and as editor-in-chief at Vogue, later becoming a special consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her influence was therefore instrumental to Talley's career.
The strained relationship between Andre Leon Talley and Anna Wintour.
For decades, Talley was Anna Wintour's right-hand man.
In his memoir, however, Talley made it clear the pair were no longer friends.
Talley and Wintour fell out in 2018, after he discovered he was no longer doing the red carpet interviews at the annual Met Gala, or those for Vogue's podcast.
Reflecting on the falling out, Talley told The Guardian: "I had suddenly become too old, too overweight and too uncool. It felt like I was just thrown under the bus. It hurt!"
He also went on to write that Wintour had left him with "huge emotional and psychological scars," suggesting the editor-in-chief was "immune to anyone other than the powerful and famous people who populate the pages of Vogue."
Graydon Carter, the former editor of Vanity Fair, agreed with Talley's comments.
"One day she treats me like a good friend and a colleague, and the next day, she treats me as if she had just handed over her keys to an unknown parking valet," he said, quoted in Talley's memoir.
The legacy Andre Leon Talley leaves behind.
This week, tributes to Talley have poured in following his death at the age of 73.
His literary agent confirmed Talley's death late on Tuesday night, but no additional details were immediately available.
As Talley once said himself: "My story is a fairytale of excess, and in every fairytale there is evil and darkness, but you overcome it with light."
In the wake of his death, Tyra Banks said: "I adored Andre. Before meeting him, I had never experienced such a prolific person serving up a rare mix of fashion 'fabulousness' and real down-home Southern comfort love. Being in his presence was so magical."
Designer and close friend Diane von Furstenberg also shared a touching tribute. "Goodbye darling Andre ... no one saw the world in a more glamorous way than you did. No one was grander and more soulful than you were."
British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful also thanked Talley for being a pioneer in the fashion industry.
Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.
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