Inside Andr Leon Talleys luxury legacy: the late fashion icons celebrity friends and fallout

Talley was raised by his maternal grandmother – Binnie Francis Davis, a cleaner – after his parents got divorced. Talley went to church and school and obtained a master’s degree in French at Brown University, initially to teach the language.

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But a stronger calling led him to take an unpaid apprenticeship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art under the late Diana Vreeland, a fashion editor he adored. This stint eventually led him to work for Andy Warhol’s magazine, Interview, from where he landed jobs at W, Women’s Wear Daily and The New York Times before becoming Vogue’s fashion news director in 1983 and creative director in 1988, appointed by editor-in-chief and fashion icon Anna Wintour herself.

Uncompromised and uncompromising

Talley was always bold, loud and extravagant, making the world – including the tennis court – his runway.

Having been encouraged to lose weight by Wintour, Talley took up tennis, making sure he was always dressed up to the nines. In the 2009 Vogue documentary The September Issue, he was shown headed for the court with a Louis Vuitton racket case, Louis Vuitton gym bag and Louis Vuitton monogrammed towel.

As detailed by The Daily Beast, Talley’s tennis ensemble included Damon Dash trousers and a Ralph Lauren shirt, topped off with a 1960s vintage diamond Piaget watch.

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Stylish at all times

Talley’s appetite for the magnificent and beautiful followed him wherever he went, at home or while travelling the world.

As disclosed by Vogue, he had quite a list of wardrobe essentials when travelling: a bevy of capes, kaftans and suits by the likes of Chanel, Balenciaga, Ralph Rucci, Ralph Lauren, Tom Ford and Valentino; white shirts, socks and linen handkerchiefs by Charvet; bags by Hermès and his trusty Louis Vuitton luggage set – of which he reportedly owned more than 50 pieces, stashed in his North Carolina home, as per a Guardian report.

His eye for style and penchant for luxury wasn’t reserved only for clothes. In an interview with Travel Channel published on the HGTV website, Talley named The Ritz in Paris as his favourite hotel, singling out his preference for its peach sheets and towels. The fashion editor also revealed how he once used to store furniture, mirrors, and paintings that he bought in France at The Ritz, which the staff would set up and hang upon his arrival.

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Yet despite being a citizen of the world, Talley said his bed back home was his most-prized possession: “A well-dressed bed is the ultimate luxury at the end of the day,” he is quoted saying on Elle Decor. In his case, it was a black, ebonised four-poster bed designed especially for him by Oscar de la Renta, which Talley loved to adorn in outlandishly priced sheets.

An icon at home with icons

Talley powered through the fashion world, making friends with a who’s who of its biggest and brightest, and becoming a style icon himself.

His career spanned decades, which he spent among the halls of the Met, in the front row of fashion shows, and on the red carpet. He became friends with Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, Manolo Blahnik, Oscar de la Renta, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, to name a few; supermodels such as Naomi Campbell; sports stars such as tennis champ Venus Williams; and he worked closely with political figures such as Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris.

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Literally and figuratively, Talley made himself a figure not to be missed. In his later years, he owned his signature Alt look: clad magnificently in his puffy, sleeping bag-esque coats, exotic silk kaftans and robes, and enormous capes, all made for him by his favourite designers.

Fear and friendship

Despite facing bullies and abuse as a child and even later, Talley stood tall – in the words of British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, “he paved the way”.

Being a domineering figure in a predominantly white fashion world, Talley had his fair share of challenges. His fallings-out with fashion friends, detailed in his memoir The Chiffon Trenches, caused him heartbreak. Most recently, another friendship turned sour, with George Malkemus, former head of Manolo Blahnik USA, and Anthony Yurgaitis, his business partner and husband, almost caused Talley to be evicted from his million-dollar White Plains home, according to The New York Times.

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The Daily Beast quotes Talley from his memoir: “I had arrived in a place where I was accepted and where I now belonged.” Fashion fascinated him, and it was also his escape and refuge. In another interview, quoted in the book, Talley said, “Clothes were my armour of warfare. That’s how I got through life. I had to represent. I couldn’t fail. Failure was not an option.”

The world of fashion gave him his powerful voice and presence to survive and succeed – and inspire many others to be as unapologetically bold and boisterous as Talley joyously and infectiously was.

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