André Leon Talley; Fashion's First Major Black Influence
André Leon Talley, fashion's first major Black influence and American fashion icon, passed away at the age of 73 on January 18th, 2022. He was a trailblazer in fashion, not only for fashion enthusiasts, but also for people of color. By advocating for diversity within the fashion industry and championing young talent, his contributions have single handedly helped sculpt our fashion culture today and pioneered our vision at Recreational Habits; inclusion for all in any space. He has been a beacon of light for so many, so today we honor him and shine a light on his legacy.
At the age of nine, André found a Vogue magazine issue at his local library and from that moment, his appreciation of fashion began. “[Vogue] was my gateway to the world outside of Durham,” Talley told NPR in a 2018 interview. From there, he said, it was like tumbling down a “rabbit hole”. If only he knew that he would one day be the first Black male Creative Director of that very publication! Raised in the Jim Crow era South in Durham, North Carolina, his beginnings were humble. His father was a taxi driver and he primarily lived with his grandmother who was a cleaning lady at Duke University, who he credits for his fashion sense watching her dress up on Sundays for church.
André won a scholarship to Brown University and took an unpaid internship with Diana Vreeland, former Vogue Editor-in-Chief, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1974. He won her admiration and support by his hard work and charming nature that she supported him by setting him up with a job at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. From there he would have stints at Women's Wear Daily, W, the New York Times, before eventually finding his home at Vogue where he worked at the Fashion News Director from 1983-1987 and was promoted to Vogue’s Creative Director until 1995 but remained an editor-at-large until 2013.
While dominating within the editorial side of fashion and advocating for designers to include models of color within their campaigns and runway shows, he wrote several books and became the Obama’s family fashion advisor. He connected Michelle Obama to the incredibly talented Jason Wu, an up-and-coming Taiwanese Canadian fashion designer at the time, who created multiple pieces for the first lady’s including her inaugural gown.
In 2020, André released, The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir, which became a New York Times Best Seller, that “tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.” The book, that André insists is a ‘love letter’ to his longtime friend and collaborator, Anna Wintour, did not sit well with her and their decades long friendship and work relationship ceased on a bitter note. “This is a painful thing for me, but it is a love letter about the joys as well as the lows of my life. And the joys of my life have been with Anna Wintour," André said. "But this book will help unpeel the onion about her. This is about a Black man's experience in a very insulated world." He continues, "I owe to her the pioneering role that I had as Creative Director of Vogue," he continued. "I was the first Black man to ever be named such. I owe that to Anna Wintour. I owe her so much. And I think, in turn, I think she owes me."
We think in turn, we all owe him for his work and representation within the fashion industry. As he rose up the mastheads and became the key player within the industry, he understood his responsibility as a person of color in a position of power to use his resources to shine a light on creatives of color from fashion designers, models, photographers and stories. People of color in fashion have been will continue to benefit from André Leon Talley’s foundational ground work. You will be missed, André Leon Talley!
