Life Lessons from André Leon Talley

Welcome to Life Lessons. Today, we mourn the loss of one of our own—the inimitable André Leon Talley. News of the trailblazing fashion editor’s passing came late on Tuesday night, sparking a flood of tearful tributes and joyful memorials in honor of this towering (six-foot-six) cultural icon. André began his storied career in the offices of this very publication—as a receptionist for Andy Warhol—and rose to claim the carefully gate-kept title of Creative Director and Editor at Large of Vogue not long thereafter. In the years since, André, a Black queer man raised in the Jim Crow South, relentlessly rewrote the fashion industry’s rules, dressing First Ladies, casting Naomi Campbell in a reimagined “Gone With the Wind” shoot for Vanity Fair, and carving out space in the magazine world’s highest echelons—all in his signature uniform of oversized furs and candy-colored kaftans. To mark an icon’s passing, we’re bringing together the brightest moments from our decades’ worth of interviews with André, courtesty of the likes of Carolina Herrera (1981), Michael Kors (2019), Gloria von Thurn und Taxis (2020), and Demna Gavasalia (2021). So sit back and grab a pen, darling—you just might learn a thing or two.

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“Tradition is everything, and you cannot forget traditions. You cannot forget going to church.”

(May, 2020)

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“Darling, clothes are not important in this pandemic. What’s important is your strength that comes from your faith, your values. All of that is very ingrained in you, so therefore you can survive.”

(2020)

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“People have forgotten in this world today how to behave properly. People don’t have manners anymore.”

(2020)

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“The world of fashion is very sad sometimes.”

(2020)

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“Nuance is everything. Attitude is most paramount for the kind of clothes you
wear and design.”

(1981)

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“Did you know [Andy Warhol] had a whole wardrobe of wigs? I never knew he had wigs until he died… I just thought that was his hair.”

(2019)

 

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