Vogue and Anna Wintour pay tribute to André Leon Talley following criticism

Vogue’s former creative director died at age 73

Vogue criticised over slow tribute to Andre Leon Talley (Getty Images)

Following the news that fashion icon André Leon Talley has died, fans have criticised Vogue and Anna Wintour for not marking the death of the magazine’s former creative director sooner.

Talley, who first joined Vogue in 1983 as the outlet’s fashion news director, worked as creative director alongside editor-in-chief Anna Wintour from 1987 to 1995. He later returned to the magazine as editor-at-large in 1998, a role he would stay in until 2013.

During the many years they worked together, Talley and Wintour formed a close bond, with the pair becoming friends as well as colleagues.

However, in 2020, Talley revealed that his decades-long friendship with Wintour had seemingly come to an end in his memoir The Chiffon Trenches, in which he described his former boss as “not capable of human kindness”.

On Tuesday, after it was reported that Talley had died at the age of 73, numerous fashion icons and outlets paid tribute to the late creative. Vogue, however, was noticeably absent, as the magazine’s US homepage did not include any mention of Talley’s passing until hours later on Wednesday.

The news that the magazine’s former creative director had died had also not been reported on the outlet’s social media accounts, including Instagram and Twitter, until the following day.

On Twitter, Vogue’s most-recent tweets as of Wednesday morning were dedicated to the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That, while the photo posted most-recently on the magazine’s Instagram featured Emilia Jones. A tribute was later shared in Talley’s memory.

The outlet’s initial omission was criticised on social media, where writer Roxanne Gay wrote: “When we talk about how your job will never love you no matter how much you give them, @vogue saying nothing about André Leon Talley’s passing and just tweeting as normal is a case study. Foul business.”

In a follow-up tweet in response to another user who acknowledged that Talley had had a “falling out” with Wintour, Gay added: “He did but before that, he worked at Vogue on and off for like 20 years. It’s pathetic to harbour a grudge at this point. A brief acknowledgment before something more formal is the very, very least they could do.”

As reported by the DailyBeast, Daniel D’Addario, Variety’s TV critic, also noticed the absence, as he tweeted: “No mention of André Leon Talley on the Vogue homepage, where the first story I saw promoted on their homepage was a two-day-old interview with Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly.”

Others noted that Vogue had continued to post unrelated stories, with someone else writing on Twitter: “While the world mourns the passing of André Leon Talley, Vogue posts…Gwyneth Paltrow’s body brushing tips?” alongside a screenshot of a tweet from the magazine promoting a piece about the Goop founder’s wellness technique.

Talley’s death was reported on the British Vogue homepage, while British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful paid tribute to the fashion icon on Instagram, where he wrote: “RIP dearest Andre. Without you, there would be no me. Thank you for paving the way.”

At the time of writing, Vogue has published two pieces reporting Talley’s death, with one, published Wednesday, titled: “Andre Leon Talley, the Pioneering Vogue Editor, has died at 73,” later featured on the Vogue homepage.

In the piece, it also includes a statement from Wintour, who said: “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 - no one could make people more excited about the most seemingly insignificant fashion details than him. Even his stream of colourful faxes and emails were a highly anticipated event, something we all looked forward to.”

In the statement, Wintour then went on to describe the loss of her “colleage and friend” as “immeasurable”.

“He was magnificent and erudite and wickedly funny - mercurial, too. Like many decades-long relationships, there were complicated moments, but all I want to remember today, all I care about, is the 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,”she wrote.

The outlet has also published a story of photographs, titled: “André Leon Talley: A Life in Pictures.”

In his memoir, Talley recalled that tensions had been rising for years between himself and Wintour, as he claimed that there were numerous times he felt he “wasn’t being treated properly” while working at the fashion magazine.

According to Talley, the pair eventually reconciled their friendship when he returned to Vogue, however, it soured again in 2018 when the fashion journalist revealed that he had been replaced as interviewer for the Met Gala. At the time, he said he realised he had been “thrown to the curb” by Wintour.

“This was clearly a stone-cold business decision. I had suddenly become too old, too overweight, too uncool, I imagined, for Anna Wintour,” he wrote.

Despite the pair’s rocky relationship, Talley noted in his memoir that “not a day goes by when I do not think of Anna Wintour” before expressing his hope that she will “find a way to apologise before I die”.

The Independent has contacted Vogue for comment.