André Leon Talley, eminence of haute couture, dies at 73

André Leon Talley, who rose from an impoverished childhood in the segregated South to become an eminence of haute couture and one of the few African Americans on the mastheads and red carpets of the fashion world, died Jan. 18 at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y. He was 73.

Talley had several chronic illnesses and contracted COVID-19 several days ago, Darren Walker, a friend of Talley’s and the president of the Ford Foundation, confirmed.

Talley had been an indomitable fixture of the fashion scene since the 1970s, when he embarked on a career that would take him to New York and Paris as a writer, editor and tastemaker for magazines including Vogue and Vanity Fair.