André Leon Talley, October 16, 1948-January 18, 2022
January 19, 2022 7:50 AM Subscribe
Link to his obituary in Vogue. Fashion journalist André Leon Talley, often described as larger than life, has died at age 73. He was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first Black male creative director from 1988 to 1995, and then its editor-at-large from 1998 to 2013.
May he rest in power. Among his many notable quotes: "Some days are good; some days are not so good. Some days are really exciting. Some days are just tedious. You just have to get up out of bed.” (as cited on the LGBT history instagram account) His memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, was released last year. As his obituary in the NYTimes notes, he was the rare Black editor at the top of a field that was notoriously white and elitist. Here's the CNN obituary and the NPR obituary.
May he rest in power. Among his many notable quotes: "Some days are good; some days are not so good. Some days are really exciting. Some days are just tedious. You just have to get up out of bed.” (as cited on the LGBT history instagram account) His memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, was released last year. As his obituary in the NYTimes notes, he was the rare Black editor at the top of a field that was notoriously white and elitist. Here's the CNN obituary and the NPR obituary.
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posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:58 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:58 AM on January 19, 2022
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posted by praemunire at 8:16 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by praemunire at 8:16 AM on January 19, 2022
This is ephemeral, but right now tumblr is doing its job and circulating a wealth of images.
posted by praemunire at 8:17 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 8:17 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
And he of course appears in The September Issue (here he is in the trailer, making a typical pronouncement).
posted by praemunire at 8:23 AM on January 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:23 AM on January 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Thank you for the additional links, praemunire. Saeed Jones just posted an ode as well.
posted by wicked_sassy at 8:28 AM on January 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by wicked_sassy at 8:28 AM on January 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
He was such an icon! He will be sorely missed.
posted by pangolin party at 8:51 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by pangolin party at 8:51 AM on January 19, 2022
Like a lot of people I first ran across him on America's Next Top Model. He was wonderful. I had no idea he wrote a memoir and can't wait to read it.
posted by JanetLand at 9:13 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 9:13 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm glad he got his book published. There are so many influential people in fashion who disappear from the narrative or who appear as much more marginal figures than they really were, and it's more difficult to disappear if you've got a book. Of course this is particularly true of BIPOC and queer people, but it's true in general - Loulou de la Falaise, for instance, was an enormously influential person (both as a "muse", de facto a promoter, and as a jewelry designer) and there isn't as far as I know a really coherent piece about her work.
People are of course circulating a wealth of images, but from what I remember he was treated pretty badly by a lot of big names at various times and did not have the financial success that you'd expect from someone with such a long career.
posted by Frowner at 9:15 AM on January 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
People are of course circulating a wealth of images, but from what I remember he was treated pretty badly by a lot of big names at various times and did not have the financial success that you'd expect from someone with such a long career.
posted by Frowner at 9:15 AM on January 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
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I first came across him on ANTM too, and have his memoir on my Kindle to read. I know from press at the time it came out that he'd endured horrible abuse from those in power due to his weight, and that, as Frowner says above, he had financial difficulties too. He overcame many obstacles to rise in his profession, but was often sidelined and overlooked. RIP, Andre Leon.
posted by essexjan at 9:19 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I first came across him on ANTM too, and have his memoir on my Kindle to read. I know from press at the time it came out that he'd endured horrible abuse from those in power due to his weight, and that, as Frowner says above, he had financial difficulties too. He overcame many obstacles to rise in his profession, but was often sidelined and overlooked. RIP, Andre Leon.
posted by essexjan at 9:19 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by oceanjesse at 9:36 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by oceanjesse at 9:36 AM on January 19, 2022
Frowner, I don’t know that I’d want to read much more about LouLou de la Falaise after reading this excerpt from a New Yorker piece about ALT.
posted by padraigin at 9:38 AM on January 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by padraigin at 9:38 AM on January 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
Frowner, I don’t know that I’d want to read much more about LouLou de la Falaise after reading this excerpt from a New Yorker piece about ALT.
Oh wow, yes, damnatio memoriae going forward unless it becomes necessary to condemn. I had not read that profile but man never another positive comment about her again.
posted by Frowner at 9:44 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh wow, yes, damnatio memoriae going forward unless it becomes necessary to condemn. I had not read that profile but man never another positive comment about her again.
posted by Frowner at 9:44 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was surprised and disappointed to read that as well, I remember LouLou being *everywhere* in fashion in the 80s.
posted by padraigin at 9:46 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by padraigin at 9:46 AM on January 19, 2022
Worth noting that there does not yet seem to be any public comment from Anna Wintour.
posted by praemunire at 10:01 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by praemunire at 10:01 AM on January 19, 2022
In ~2009 I met Andre Leon Talley and was so awestruck all I could think to ask was “why do so many fashion people still use fax machines?” He cried “Sketches! Sketches!” and swept away in a floor-length gray opera cape. —Helen Rosner
posted by babelfish at 10:09 AM on January 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 10:09 AM on January 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
Worth noting that there does not yet seem to be any public comment from Anna Wintour.
There's a quote from her in the first link:
There's a quote from her in the first link:
“The loss of André is felt by so many of us today: the designers he enthusiastically cheered on every season, and who loved him for it; the generations he inspired to work in the industry, seeing a figure who broke boundaries while never forgetting where he started from; those who knew fashion, and Vogue, simply because of him; and, not forgetting, the multitude of colleagues over the years who were consistently buoyed by every new discovery of André’s, which he would discuss loudly, and volubly—no one could make people more excited about the most seemingly insignificant fashion details than him. Even his stream of colorful faxes and emails were a highly anticipated event, something we all looked forward to,” said Anna Wintour. “Yet it’s the loss of André as my colleague and friend that I think of now; it’s immeasurable. He was magnificent and erudite and wickedly funny—mercurial, too. Like many decades-long relationships, there were complicated moments, but all I want to remember today, all I care about, is the brilliant and compassionate man who was a generous and loving friend to me and to my family for many, many years, and who we will all miss so much.”posted by jacquilynne at 10:19 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
There are 2-3 men I know who are pretty hard-core masculine who enjoy fashion and loved this guy...namely because he was straight up, didn't suffer fools and had incredible style.
I also think they knew that he was someone you'd want to have in the trenches with you.
Void in the world at this moment for everyone.
posted by goalyeehah at 10:28 AM on January 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
I also think they knew that he was someone you'd want to have in the trenches with you.
Void in the world at this moment for everyone.
posted by goalyeehah at 10:28 AM on January 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
Thanks, jacquilynne; somehow I read all the obits but the Vogue one.
posted by praemunire at 10:49 AM on January 19, 2022
posted by praemunire at 10:49 AM on January 19, 2022
I've tried to explain what he meant to me so many times. It doesn't come out right. I'll just say as a weirdo teenager into fashion in suburban Texas he was an amazing influence.
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posted by shmurley at 11:45 AM on January 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
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posted by shmurley at 11:45 AM on January 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
In an industry where everyone stands out, or aims to, he stood out.
There's a great clip here from a documentary about him, going through some pieces at FIT from Diana Vreeland's collection. His enthusiasm is palpable.
posted by Mchelly at 12:19 PM on January 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
There's a great clip here from a documentary about him, going through some pieces at FIT from Diana Vreeland's collection. His enthusiasm is palpable.
posted by Mchelly at 12:19 PM on January 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
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posted by Token Meme at 12:36 PM on January 19, 2022
posted by Token Meme at 12:36 PM on January 19, 2022
Loved ALT.
I had a celeb spotting of him once, walking down Madison. He was just radiating Presence.
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:02 PM on January 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
I had a celeb spotting of him once, walking down Madison. He was just radiating Presence.
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:02 PM on January 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
I knew him casually irl, and he was very, very funny and kind.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:15 PM on January 19, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by Ideefixe at 1:15 PM on January 19, 2022 [13 favorites]
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posted by HandfulOfDust at 1:39 PM on January 19, 2022
posted by HandfulOfDust at 1:39 PM on January 19, 2022
There is something very sad about the end of Andre Leon Talley's last act. His whole act as an old school couriter, fixer, and taste maker. He kept saying that the industry was kind, and I suspect that for a while it was. However, the plausible denability that fashion was art run on handshakes and fashion, which maybe if you squinted for a while, it was, but is no longer. ALT did not know how to handle it as anything but art, and became very old fashioned, the same old story, the same old charachter. There is this video of him near the end of his life, with Robin Givhan, where he is asked about who is making clothes now that he loves, and he could not name anyone past YSL...it made me wonder of what he thought about Demna Gvasalia, who made the recent casual turn conceptual, but lacked the couterier touch, or Virgil Abloh, who made clothes for Black people, in ways that ALT never quite did. The Als profile, which argued about the perliousness of making it inside, and thinking of how he died, near poverty, without a gig, in a borrowed house, which might not have been his to borrow--there is something gridningly sad about being in exile, and not being about to say that outloud.
posted by PinkMoose at 1:54 PM on January 19, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by PinkMoose at 1:54 PM on January 19, 2022 [13 favorites]
As someone quite as far from the fashion industry as possible, I was intrigued and enamored by his biography and had a strong feeling that Mr Tally would have been just a pleasure to meet. There was so much left intentionally hovering just lightly between the lines, he certainly walked the walk and had adventures us mere off the rackers can barely imagine.
there were complicated moments ... ah Ms. Wintour, I suspect that Ms Streep's portrayal that many felt was "mean" did not come close to the viscous machiavellian convolutions laying lightly beneath the frill and gauze of that world.
posted by sammyo at 3:34 PM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
there were complicated moments ... ah Ms. Wintour, I suspect that Ms Streep's portrayal that many felt was "mean" did not come close to the viscous machiavellian convolutions laying lightly beneath the frill and gauze of that world.
posted by sammyo at 3:34 PM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 3:38 PM on January 19, 2022
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 3:38 PM on January 19, 2022
Came here to say, I first encountered him in the novel version of “The Devil Wears Prada,” which I discovered after the movie. I had to know more; highly recommend the “September Issue” movie.
Also read his two memoirs. The descriptions of his grandmother’s cooking is food porn. And I felt the earth move when on his first day of volunteering at the Met Costume Institute, Diana Vreeland demanded to know who the new volunteer was.
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posted by Melismata at 5:11 PM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also read his two memoirs. The descriptions of his grandmother’s cooking is food porn. And I felt the earth move when on his first day of volunteering at the Met Costume Institute, Diana Vreeland demanded to know who the new volunteer was.
. <3
posted by Melismata at 5:11 PM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was just reading the Chris Frantz/Talking Heads memoir, and Andre pops up as a dazzling RISD student journalist commenting on their early parties/shows.
posted by ovvl at 3:23 PM on January 20, 2022
posted by ovvl at 3:23 PM on January 20, 2022
Kimora Lee Simmons wrote a beautiful tribute in Ebony.
posted by ellieBOA at 5:46 AM on February 9, 2022
posted by ellieBOA at 5:46 AM on February 9, 2022
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