Libra, fashionista, superhero André Leon Talley clutching a leather Birkin bag embossed with his initials, ALT.
People die all the time. Being in a pandemic (Is it still considered a pandemic or just the new, fucked up normal and America forgot to update our profile status?) during the age of social media, it’s so easy to feel numb to the news of death. In the last few weeks, several icons have died – Betty White, Bob Saget, Sidney Poitier, Virgil Abloh – but something about the news of André Leon Talley’s passing hits differently.
I didn’t actually know André, but like so many, I identified with him. Especially after watching his biographical documentary and reading his memoir, it felt like I knew him. Plus, we’re both libras (his birthday the day after mine), we both have the initials ALT.
Black, queer, plus-size, flamboyant, fashionable, educated people have very few references in the mainstream, few references showing what’s possible for us. And when one with the magnitude of André comes along, the impact is metamorphic.
“Luxury is in your mind.”
An encyclopedia of fashion history and an influence at Conde Nast for nearly 30 years, André was a pioneer who imbued Black heritage into couture fashion photography when the industry was timid to embrace diversity.
André’s visionary 1996 Vanity Fair editorial spread, Scarlet in the Hood featuring Naomi Campbell as Scarlett O'Hara, expanded on the trope of Hollywood heroines.
His visionary 1996 Vanity Fair editorial spread, Scarlet in the Hood featuring Naomi Campbell as Scarlett O'Hara, expanded on the trope of Hollywood heroines. Photographed by Karl Lagerfeld, André reimagined Gone with the Wind with Black people as aristocrats, white people their maids.
André was a Black superhero, one with embroidered capes lined with fur and hats to match, who had the ability to transport me from reality into a world of opulence that was attainable through his fashion editorials. A larger than life gay auntie who mentored me indirectly through the results of his expertise.
I salute you, André. I’m sure Coco Chanel greeted you at the gates of the Great Beyond, and tonight’s dinner party will be grand enough to warrant updating the New Testament.
“Moments should come to you everyday. You have to see the world with the kaleidoscope eyes of a child and just be in awe of everything.”