STYLE TRANSCENDS RACE, CLASS AND TIME: André Leon Talley Dies @ 73
This year feels like a year of unrelenting, diverse, impactful deaths already — now, Vogue icon André Leon Talley has died, age 73.
He reportedly died in a White Plains, New York, hospital after battling an unknown ailment. Born October 16, 1948, in D.C., he was raised by his grandma, a cleaning lady.
She reportedly instilled in him the value of luxury, and his discovery of Vogue at his local library left a huge imprint upon the child who, as an adult, identified as sexually fluid.
After studying on a scholarship at Brown, he became an apprentice to Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) at the Met, unpaid. It was the kind of opportunity only trust-fund babies could usually afford to not pass up, but he made it work, and parlayed it into a paid gig at Interview.
