Photos show fashion icon André Leon Talley's larger-than-life influence on the industry
- André Leon Talley, who died Tuesday, blazed trails for Black queer Americans in fashion journalism.
- In the 1980s, Talley became the first Black man to be Vogue's creative director.
André Leon Talley, who died on Tuesday, had a larger-than-life persona that was stamped all over the fashion industry.
Not only was he a trailblazer for Black queer Americans in fashion journalism — in the late 1980s he became the first African American man to be the creative director of Vogue — but his sarcastically candid demeanor captivated many.
In his 2020 memoir, "The Chiffon Trenches," Talley wrote about his rough upbringing, raised by his grandmother in Jim Crow-era North Carolina. He found ways to escape, including through trips to the public library in Durham — he would scan each page of Vogue and other fashion publications and absorb the latest designer collection releases.
After graduating from Brown University, Talley began his career working under Diana Vreeland, the acclaimed Vogue fashion editor.
Over his almost five-decade career he spent time at The New York Times, Women's Wear Daily, W Magazine, and Vogue before joining Numero Russia as its editor at large in 2013. For years he was the host of the Met Gala in New York City.
In his memoir, Talley depicted his longtime boss Anna Wintour, Vogue's editor-in-chief, as a businesswoman who was not necessarily steeped in the history of the fashion industry or understanding of the plight of marginalized communities. He explained how he communicated to his peers like Wintour and the designer Karl Lagerfeld about hiring more people of color in fashion.
"My way of approaching diversity in the world of fashion was to communicate with the power of suggestion," Talley wrote. "I would not go up to Karl Lagerfeld and say, 'Where are the black models on your runway?' Instead, if I didn't see a moment of diversity, I would sit next to him and recommend girls who were missing. 'What about Naomi Campbell, wouldn't she look great in that suit?'"
Talley advised the Obama family on fashion while they were in the White House, and he introduced Michelle Obama to Jason Wu, who designed her inaugural gown in 2009.
In 2018, Talley wrote a Washington Post column about the historic impact of Tyler Mitchell, the first Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover in its 125-year history, for its September 2018 issue featuring Beyoncé.
When Talley departed Vogue for the second time, in 2013, he told WWD that he and his Vogue colleagues "remain great friends." But Talley was said to have fallen out with Wintour in 2018 when he was dropped as the Met Gala's red-carpet host and was replaced by a YouTuber, Liza Koshy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
