By Siona Ahuja ’24
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Content warning: this article discusses racism.
André Leon Talley was fashion’s greatest moments personified. The larger-than-life stylist, writer and former Vogue editor-at-large died on Jan. 18 at age 73. His death leaves a gaping void in the global fashion landscape. He was American artist Andy Warhol’s muse and a close confidante to some of fashion’s biggest names like Naomi Campbell, Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint-Laurent. He was the first Black person to grace Vogue’s masthead. In his lifetime, he worked to shape the predominantly white industry with his grandiose perspective. Edward Enniful, the first Black Editor-in-Chief of any Vogue, paid his tribute to Talley on Instagram, “Without you, there would be no me. Thank you for paving the way.”
Growing up during the Jim Crow era, Talley ignored the incessant bullying by his peers and found refuge in fashion upon discovering a Vogue issue in his church library. In a 2018 interview with NPR, Talley commented that this experience “felt like traveling down a ‘rabbit hole,’ into a ‘world of glamour.’”
According to the South China Morning Post, Talley moved to New York City at 26, going on to work as an apprentice alongside Diana Vreeland, a special consultant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Through this experience, Talley immersed himself into the magazine world. He became the receptionist at Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine and, under Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Anna Wintour, the creative director — and subsequent editor-at-large — of Vogue.
Talley’s legacy lies in countless places and projects. A few of these include his work styling political figures like former First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris, guest judging four seasons of fashion reality series “America’s Next Top Model,” writing two memoirs and starring in a documentary on his life, “The Gospel According to André.”
Perhaps his largest impact was felt in his constant battle to push racial boundaries in the fashion industry. For Talley, to be a Black man in fashion meant braving the cultural and racial minefields that the fashion universe of his time was so fraught with. He not only overcame racist taunts from his colleagues –– such as being nicknamed “Queen Kong” –– but also fought hard for inclusivity in all arenas of his career.
In his tribute to Talley, which appeared in a recent issue of Vogue, Hamish Bowles — contributor and European editor-at-large for American Vogue — commented on Talley’s tenacity. “[Talley] pushed and fought for diversity at every turn, nurturing, supporting and promoting young and established designers and models and performers of color, and making sure that they found their place in the pages of the magazine, on the runways, in the stores,” Bowles wrote.
Talley’s commitment to inclusivity was evident in his actions. In a 1996 “Gone With the Wind” themed shoot by Vanity Fair, Talley cast supermodel Naomi Campbell among other Black models. In 2018, he wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post, celebrating Vogue hiring its first Black photographer for the Sept. 2018 issue, which featured Beyoncé on the cover. He praised the cover’s ode to Blackness but also added that the milestone was “a long time coming.”
In his memoir, “The Chiffon Trenches,” Talley wrote about how playing any kind of role in the fashion industry once seemed impossible because of his race. He wrote, “To think of where I’ve come from, where we’ve come from, in my lifetime, and where we are today, is amazing. And, yet, of course, we still have so far to go.”
Standing at six feet six inches, Talley was as loud as he was tall. His staple outfit –– custom-made capes, kaftans and gloves by designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino –– captured his resplendent attitude. He did not submit to fashion’s narrowly defined standards and, in doing so, changed the standards of fashion itself.
With the news of Talley’s death, a sea of tributes from celebrities flowed in on social media, underlining his grace and kindness. In an Instagram post, American fashion designer Marc Jacobs wrote, “You championed me and you have been my friend since my beginning. … You and your passions were larger than life.”
Despite being a man of the world, Talley considered the greatest luxury to “impart to humanity something that will enrich their lives,” according to a 2010 interview with the Yale Daily News. And that, he certainly did.