Andre Leon Talley being interviewed in the 1990s. (Screenshot via YouTube)
Andre Leon Talley, a formidable iconic fashion journalist and the former creative director and one-time editor-at-large of Vogue magazine, passed away at age 73 of unspecified causes at a hospital in White Plains, an inner suburb of New York City in Westchester County.
News of the famed fashion journalist’s death Jan. 18 was first reported by celebrity news and gossip site TMZ.
Andre Leon Talley, a giant in the fashion world, has died at 73. https://t.co/eckqP7zdwk
— TMZ (@TMZ) January 19, 2022
Talley was known for his close friendships with designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Tracy Reese, Rachel Roy, singer/actress Jennifer Hudson and Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour among others.
Talley worked at Vogue during an unprecedented time of growth in the fashion industry in the 1980s and ’90s. From 1983 until late 1987, he was the magazine’s news director and was then promoted to Vogue’s creative director in 1988, a post he held until 1995. He later came back to the magazine in 1998 as the editor-at-large until his departure in 2013.
Born in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1948 and raised in North Carolina, Talley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French Literature in 1970 from North Carolina Central University. He later attended Brown University, after he was awarded a scholarship, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in French Literature in 1972.
Talley’s early career as a journalist saw him working at Andy Warhol’s Factory and Interview magazine. He later became the Paris bureau chief for Women’s Wear Daily.
His later career saw Talley hosting his own radio show principally concerned with fashion and pop culture on Sirius XM. He also released a book “The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir” on May 19, 2020, which detailed his early career start and some of the issues he encountered as a Black man.
Talley was also an LGBTQ+ icon. When asked about his sexual orientation by daytime chat show host Wendy Williams during a May 29, 2018 appearance, he stated, “No, I’m not heterosexual; I’m saying I’m fluid in my sexuality, darling.”
