Photo: Eugene Gologursky/WireImage
André Leon Talleywas a beloved icon in the fashion industry, and his relationship withVogueeditor-in-chiefAnna Wintourdates back decades.
Talley,who died on Tuesday at age 73after reportedly battling an unknown illness, was a trailblazing fashion journalist and editor, having worked with Wintour, 72, for years at the magazine.
“We didn’t have to speak,“he told PEOPLEin May 2020 of his close bond with the legendary fashion editor, while promoting his memoir,The Chiffon Trenches, in which he wrote honestly and candidly about the ups and downs of their friendship. (Wintour has been editor-in-chief ofVoguesince 1988 and earlier this year took on two new job titles: worldwide chief content officer and global editorial director ofVogue.)
Continued Talley: “I knew what she was thinking, without words. She doesn’t say many words.”
Talley first joinedVoguein 1983 as the magazine’s fashion news director. He quickly rose to creative director and Wintour’s right-hand and can be seen in documentaries about the magazine, includingThe September IssueandThe Gospel According to André.
“When I first went toVogue, I met her, I said hello politely, I took the subway home to 14th St. andVoguewas at 44th. I took two stops on the express train. By the time I got home, under my door on engraved stationary from Anna Wintour was a note: Welcome toVogue,” Talley told PEOPLE.
“Ms. Wintour and I made waves. She was always my biggest supporter. She was very inspiring, and she is inspiring,” he said. “Going to work every day was amazing. Everything about it was amazing.”
However, the pair’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 Talley.
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While their relationship hit “an iceberg,” as Talley toldGayle King onCBS This Morning, Talley insisted that his memoir was, in a sense, a “love letter” to Wintour.
“And so this is a painful thing for me, but it is a love letter about the joys as well as the lows of my life. And the joys of my life have been with Anna Wintour,” he explained. “But this book will help unpeel the onion about her. This is about is a Black man’s experience in a very insulated world.”
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“I owe to her the pioneering role that I had of a creative director ofVogue,” he continued. “I was the first Black man to ever be named such. I owe that to Anna Wintour. I owe her much. And I think, in turn, I think she owes me.”
“I love her,” Talley said. “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
