André Leon Talley, the towering former artistic director and editor at giant of Vogue journal, has died. He was 73.
Talley’s literary agent David Vigliano confirmed Talley’s demise to USA In the present day late Tuesday, however no further particulars had been instantly out there.
Talley was an influential trend journalist who labored at Ladies’s Put on Each day and Vogue and was a daily within the entrance row of trend exhibits in New York and Europe. At 6-feet-6 inches tall, Talley reduce an imposing determine wherever he went, along with his stature, his appreciable affect on the style world, and his daring appears.
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In a 2013 Vainness Honest unfold titled “The Eyeful Tower,” Talley was described as “maybe the business’s most vital hyperlink to the previous.” Designer Tom Ford instructed the journal Talley was “one of many final nice trend editors who has an unimaginable sense of trend historical past. … He can see by all the pieces you do to the unique reference, predict what was in your inspiration board.”
Designer Diane von Furstenberg praised Talley on Instagram, writing: “nobody noticed the world in a extra glamorous approach than you probably did … nobody was grander and extra soulful than you had been.”
In his 2003 memoir, A.L.T.: A Memoir, Talley targeted on two of an important ladies in his life: his maternal grandmother, Bennie Frances Davis, and the late trend editor Diana Vreeland.
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“Bennie Frances Davis could have appeared like a typical, African American home employee to lots of the individuals who noticed her on an unusual day, however I, who may see her soul, may additionally see her secret: that even whereas she wore a hair internet and work garments to wash bogs and flooring, she wore an invisible diadem,” he wrote.
His relationship with Vogue began at Duke College, the place his grandmother cleaned dorms; Talley would stroll to campus in his youth to learn the journal.
Talley was additionally a well-known determine to TV audiences, serving as a decide on America’s High Mannequin and showing on Intercourse and the Metropolis and Empire.
Notable trend personalities and celebrities expressed their condolences on social media.
“I adored Andre,” stated Tyra Banks to Leisure Tonight. “Earlier than assembly him, I had by no means skilled such a prolific particular person serving up a uncommon mixture of trend ‘fabulousness’ and actual down-home southern consolation love. Being in his presence was so magical. He made me smile, chortle and was a masterful trainer — a genius historian.
Scholar, colleague, effervescent spirit, legend… you’re resting now, Dearest André. However your spirit, your je ne sais quoi, your iconic voice…I hear it now. And can endlessly. All of us will.”
Raised in Durham, North Carolina, Talley labored assorted jobs earlier than arriving in New York within the Seventies, quickly assembly Vreeland placing up a friendship that lasted till her demise in 1989.
Talley labored as a park ranger in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, the place he instructed guests about slaves who constructed Fort Washington and dressed up like a Civil Warfare soldier, he instructed The Related Press in 2003.
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After stints with Interview journal and Ladies’s Put on Each day, Talley was employed at Vogue in 1983 by Editor in Chief Anna Wintour and was appointed its artistic director in 1988.
Talley launched one other memoir in 2020, The Chiffon Trenches, that included gossipy behind-the-scenes tales about Wintour and different trend figures just like the late designer Karl Lagerfeld.
Of all the weather of an individual’s attire, Talley thought of footwear to be most vital.
“You’ll be able to inform all the pieces about an individual by what he places on his ft,” Talley instructed the AP.
“If it’s a person and you may see the reflection of his face on the highest of his black footwear, it means they’ve been polished to perfection… if it’s a lady and she or he’s sporting footwear that harm … nicely, footwear that harm are very modern!”
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