Life lessons from André Leon Talley

Photograph by Diane von Furstenberg.

Welcome to Life Lessons. Today we mourn the loss of one of our own, the inimitable André Leon Talley. News of the edgy fashion editor’s passing came late Tuesday night, setting off a flood of tearful tributes and joyous memorials to the towering (six-foot-six) cultural icon. André began his storied career in the offices of that same publication – as a receptionist for Andy Warhol – and rose to claim the carefully guarded title of Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief of vogue shortly after. In the years that followed, André, a black queer man raised in the Jim Crow South, relentlessly rewrote the rules of the fashion industry, dressing first ladies, casting Naomi Campbell in a filming “Gone with the Wind” redesigned for vanity lounge, and carve out a place in the highest echelons of the magazine world, all in his signature uniform of oversized furs and candy-colored caftans.. To mark the passing of an icon, we’re rounding up the brightest moments from our decades of interviews with André, courtesy of people like Caroline Herrera (1981), Michael Kors (2019), Gloria von Thurn und Taxis (2020), and Demna Gavasalia (2021). So sit down and grab a pen, sweetie, you just might learn a thing or two.

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“Tradition is everything, and you can’t forget traditions. You can’t forget to go to church.

(May 2020)

Fran Lebowitz, Andre Leon Talley, Carolina Herrera and guest (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

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“Honey, clothes are not important in this pandemic. What is important is your strength which comes from your faith, from your values. It’s all very ingrained in you, so you can survive.

(2020)