André Leon Talley, influential fashion journalist, dies aged 73

NEW YORK (AP) — André Leon Talley, a towering and highly visible figure in the fashion world who made history as a rare black editor in a predominantly white industry, has died. He is 73 years old.

The death of Talley, former creative director and influential editor at Vogue magazine, is confirmed on his Instagram page Wednesday morning. No details were given as to the cause of his death, but he is known to have developed health problems in recent years. Vogue said in her obituary that she died of a heart attack.

Dressed in her signature sweeping robe or colorful caftan, Talley was a regular at the front row of fashion shows in New York and Europe for decades, or at the top of the famous staircase at the Met Gala. At 6 feet-6 inches tall, he was an impressive and unforgettable figure; a Vogue staffer called him “an extraordinary pharaoh,” the magazine wrote.

But she’s more celebrated by fashion insiders for her in-depth knowledge, accumulated over decades of devotion to the craft that began in her youth in the Jim Crow Southern era, when she would walk to the Duke University campus, where her grandmother cleaned the dorms, to read Vogue.

In the 2013 Vanity Fair exhibition “The Eyeful Tower,” Talley was described as “perhaps the industry’s most important link to the past.” Designer Tom Ford told Talley magazine he was “one of the last great fashion editors to have an extraordinary sense of fashion history. … He can see through everything you do on the original reference, predict what’s on your inspiration board.”

Talley is also a familiar figure to TV audiences, serving as a judge on “America’s Next Top Model” and making cameos in the films “Sex and the City” and in “Empire.”

Among the many celebrities who offered their condolences on Wednesday was TV personality Whoopi Goldberg, who said on Twitter that his death came “just in time to the forefront of fashion week in Heaven.”

Also full of praise was Kerry Washington, who wrote on Instagram: “Oh Andre! Heaven is not ready for you baby!!!!!! The whole life after death would be too awesome now… You will shine so bright from heaven that we will know what true fame is like.

Designer Diane von Furstenberg paid tribute on Instagram: “No one sees the world in a more glamorous way than you … no one is grander and more soulful than you.” Bette Midler tweeted: “She is such a force, & believes in the magic of Fashion & her illusions with all her being. Her life is a saga of highs, lows, dramatics, goofs, and an endless pursuit of beauty.” Marc Jacobs is one of many people who credit Talley with fighting for his career. “You and your passion are bigger than life,” the designer wrote on Instagram.

And Edward Enninful of British Vogue, the first black editor-in-chief of any Vogue issue, wrote simply: “Without you, there would be no me. Thank you for paving the way.”

In his 2003 memoir, “ALT: A Memoir,” Talley focuses on the two most important women in his life: his maternal grandmother, Bennie Frances Davis and the late, legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland.

“Bennie Frances Davis may look like the typical African-American domestic worker to many who see her on a typical day, but I, who can see her soul, can also see her secret: that even when she wears net hair and work clothes to scrub the toilet and the floor, he wore an invisible diadem,” he wrote.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Talley worked a variety of jobs before arriving in New York in the 1970s, soon meeting Vreeland and a friendship that lasted until his death in 1989. After stints including Interview magazine and Women’s Clothing Every day, he was hired at Vogue in 1983 by Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and appointed creative director in 1988.

Late in his life, he had a public feud with Wintour, after he released another memoir in 2020, “The Chiffon Trenches,” which included behind-the-scenes stories about Wintour and other fashion figures such as the late designer Karl Lagerfeld.

“André’s loss is felt by many of us today,” Wintour said in the Vogue obituary. “The designers he enthusiastically supports each season, and who love him for it; the generation he inspired to work in the industry, saw a man who pushed boundaries without forgetting where he started; those who know fashion, and Vogue, just because she…

“But losing André as a colleague and friend of mine is what I think now,” Wintour said, calling him “immeasurable.”

Talley told The Associated Press in a 2003 interview about having worked in the late ’60s as a park ranger in Washington and in Maryland, where he told visitors about the slaves who built Fort Washington and dressed as Civil War soldiers.

In the interview, she argued that out of all types of clothing, she considered shoes the most important.

“You can tell everything about a person by what he or she does,” Talley told the AP. “If it’s a man and you can see the reflection of his face on the top of his black shoe, it means the shoe has been polished to perfection. … If it’s a woman and she wears shoes that hurt… well, those shoes that hurt are very fashionable!”

But, asked what he considered a luxury item, it wasn’t the shoes, but “a stunningly clean bed with white Egyptian cotton sheets.”

She is honest about her long-standing struggle with her weight. Asked if fashion and food go hand in hand, he said that “Food doesn’t matter in the fashion world, where you’re supposed to look like asparagus.

“In my world, it’s about butter poundcake, and fried chicken, and potato salad and hot biscuits. …It’s hard to get away from that for a lettuce sandwich.”