Photo: Eugene Gologursky/WireImage
Vogueeditor-in-chiefAnna Wintouris paying tribute to her longtime colleague and “wickedly funny” close friendAndré Leon Talley.
Talley,who died on Tuesday at age 73, was a trailblazing fashion journalist, having worked with Wintour, 72, for years at the magazine. In an obituary published onVogue’s website, Wintour remembered the editor’s legacy and impact on fashion.
Although the pair’s friendship had ups and downs, whichTalley opened up about in his memoir,The Chiffon Trenches, Wintour said the pain of losing her friend of nearly 40 years feels “immeasurable.”
“Yet it’s the loss of Andre as my colleague and friend that I think of now; it’s immeasurable. He was magnificent and erudite and wickedly funny — mercurial, too,” she said.
Andre Leon Talley, Anna Wintour.Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic
“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,” Wintour added.
Talley first joinedVoguein 1983 as the magazine’s fashion news director. He quickly rose to creative director and became Wintour’s right-hand — a position he held from 1987 to 1995. He leftVoguein 1995 and moved to Paris, where he returned toW Magazineafter working at the publication earlier in his career.
He continued contributing toVogueas an editor until he rejoined the magazine in 1998 full-time as the editor-at-large, writing the monthly column Style Fax. He stayed in this role until his final departure fromVoguein 2013.
Over his career, Talley also contributed toWomen’s Wear Daily, The New York Times,andInterview Magazine. He is also the subject of the documentaryThe Gospel According to André, which was released in 2018.
Talley and Wintour’s decades-long friendship became strained after a red-carpet shakeup rocked Talley’s usual Met Gala duties, when a YouTube personality was named host of the 2018 event, in lieu of him.
Andre Leon Talley, Anna Wintour.Rose Hartman/Getty
“There was a divide and then an earthquake,” Talley toldPEOPLE in 2020of the fallout. “I felt, at a certain moment, she could not articulate it to me. Something happened.”
He added: “I had suddenly become too old, overweight and uncool for Anna Wintour. I don’t think she understands what she does to people.”
Despite their rough patches, Talley still considered his memoir to be a “love letter” to Wintour. “I love her,” Talley toldPEOPLE. “People see my book as a vengeful, bitchy tell-all. It is not. My book is in many ways a love letter to Anna Wintour.”
source: people.com
