Fashion icon André Leon Talley, a former editor of Vogue magazine, has died at age 73.
News of Talley's death quickly circulated on social media, with designer Diane von Fürstenberg writing on Instagram.
According to TMZ, he passed away at White Plains, New York hospital. His cause of death is unknown.
The former editor-at-large got his master's degree at Brown University before taking the fashion industry by storm in the '70s and '80s. In Vogue, he's quoted as saying,
"I love people—it is not the fashion. It is the people in fashion I love."
Talley first joined Vogue in 1983 as the magazine's fashion news director. He quickly rose to creative director, as Anna Wintour's right-hand position from 1987 to 1995. He left Vogue in 1995 to move to Paris, where he returned to W Magazine after working at the publication earlier in his career.
"There was no higher accolade she could give me, as the masthead portrayed. Anna Wintourmade me the highest-ranking black man in the history of fashion journalism," he wrote in his book, The Chiffon Trenches.
He had since detailed his interactions with Yves Saint Laurent, Princess Diana, Madonna, and more stars back in the day. His 2020 memoir also shed light on his working relationship with Wintour and his friendship with late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld.
"I think my relationship is in an iceberg with her," Talley said during an interview with Gayle King in 2020. "I hope that it will not be that forever."
Talley recently spoke to PEOPLE Deputy West Coast Editor Jason Sheeler.
"When you asked André a question, you had to be ready for the answer. He always had an answer. He had a perspective on fashion that went far beyond clothes and fashion magazines — he connected dots many people couldn't see, from runway to fine art to celebrity to models to photography to pop culture,"
"Last week, our interview became a fashion history lesson, as it often did. He spoke about one of the most famous quotes in all of fashion history — the seminal 'We don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day' that Linda Evangelista said to Vogue in 1990. And, André, of course, had a way to contextualize it."
Talley made appearances in Empire and Sex and the City and starred as a judge on America's Next Top Model.
