A trailblazer in the truest sense of the word, Andre Leon Talley was to Paris couture what Sidney Poitier was to Hollywood: a Black man who revolutionised the status of his race in a predominantly white industry. Whereas Poitier had a quiet, graceful, persona – pre-empting Leon Talley by two decades – Leon Talley was literally a larger than life character who stood at 6ft 6in tall.
He possessed an unmissable presence and an attitude that Anna Wintour – editor in chief of US Vogue, and his boss for decades – described as “bombastic”. For all his bravado, Leon Talley was not of the “fake it till you make it” contingent. He was a walking encyclopedia of fashion. “My power came from my knowledge,” he once said. “I opened my mouth and knew what I was talking about.”
