Legendary Vogue editor André Leon Talley passed away on Tuesday, January 18, TMZ confirmed. He was 73 years old.
The style veteran reached the top of Vogue’s masthead in the ’80s, first becoming the fashion news director and eventually the creative director, a role he left in 1995 before returning to Vogue three years later as its editor at large, a position he held until 2013. He was Vogue’s first African American male creative director.
Talley was a fashion journalist through and through, having contributed to titles like W, Women’s Wear Daily, The New York Times, and Interview Magazine. In May 2020 he released his second memoir, The Chiffon Trenches. (His first autobiography, A.L.T.: A Memoir, was released in 2003.)
André Leon Talley was a staple at Fashion Week runway shows around the world, typically sitting next to Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour.
Tributes to Talley from the fashion and writing communities are currently flooding social media. “RIP Andre Leon Talley. He was a beacon of style for so many. Just fucking terrible,” Roxane Gay tweeted.
“An icon. I hope heaven looks just like this for André Leon Talley. Full of joy, full of beauty, full of kindness,” culture critic Evette Dionne wrote.
“Andre Leon Talley, thank you for being that light of hope for us gay, Black boys in the south who read Vogue and swished too much and talked too much and loved fashion too much and wanted too much from a world that didn’t know what to do with us. Rest in power,” wrote Zach Stafford, editor in chief of .
“To be his friend was hard work, but it was worth it because he was so unique,” designer Diane von Furstenberg said, according to .
Rest in peace.
