Fashion icon Andre Leon Talley dead at 73

Fashion icon Andre Leon Talley dead at 73
Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SCAD
January 19th, 2022 | ABC News Radio

Another fashion icon has left us. André Leon Talley has died at age 73. 

The former Vogue creative director and editor-at-large died Tuesday while in the hospital battling an unknown illness, TMZ reported. 

Talley’s illustrious career spans over multiple decades with stints at magazine, Women’s Wear Daily, and the New York Times, however, it was his time with Vogue that he’s associated with most.

ALT began at the iconic fashion and lifestyle magazine in the 1983 and worked his way up the ranks to creative director and the right hand man to editor-in chief Anna Wintour. In 1995, Talley left Vogue and moved to Paris, where he worked for again before returning to Vogue three years later as the editor-at-large, which he remained until his departure in 2013. 

During his career, Talley also acted as a judge on America’s Next Top Model as well as a fashion advisor to former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. He also authored two memoirs and made cameos in the Sex and the City movie and Mariah Carey‘s “Say Something” Video.

Overall, Talley was a trailblazer in the fashion industry not just for his style, but for diversity on the runway, advocating to see more people of color. 

Following news of Talley’s death, fellow fashion icons, celebrities, and fans took to social media to pay tribute. 

Sharing a snapshot of Talley, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg wrote, “Good bye darling André … no one saw the world in a more glamorous way than you did … no one was grander and more soulful than you were …the world will be less joyful.”

“I have loved you and laughed with you for 45 years,” she added. “I miss your loud screams …I love you soooo much.”

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