Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is honoring her longtime friend and colleague André Leon Talley with an emotional tribute, following the death of the fashion icon and former Vogue creative director.
Anna took a moment to reminisce on their friendship and their work together, as Talley was without a doubt an influential figure in the fashion industry, describing him as a “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 posted her tribute to André on Vogue’s website, highlighting his talent and unique personality, recognizing him as an inspiration to many; “no one could make people more excited about the most seemingly insignificant fashion details than him.”
“The loss of André is felt by so many of us today: the designers he enthusiastically cheered on every season, and who loved him for it; the generations he inspired to work in the industry, seeing a figure who broke boundaries while never forgetting where he started from; those who knew fashion, and Vogue, simply because of him; and, not forgetting, the multitude of colleagues over the years who were consistently buoyed by every new discovery of André‘s, which he would discuss loudly, and volubly,” she continued.
“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.”
Talley opened up about his relationship with Wintour on his memoir ‘The Chiffon Trenches,’ confessing, “This is a painful thing for me, but it is a love letter because it’s a love letter about the joys as well as the lows of my life,” Andre wrote, “And the joys of my life have been with Anna Wintour.”